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PORSCHE WILLOUGHBY - 911% PORSCHE SINCE 1969.

AOur last W edition was dedicated to 30 years of Porsche at Willoughby, in this edition we focus on the future of Porsche at Willoughby as well as our achievements as a brand. In 2023 we celebrate worldwide 75 years of Porsche sports cars and 60 years of the 911, in June we are making our comeback at the 24 Hours Le Mans. On the 100th anniversary of the classic race, Porsche will once again be fighting for overall victory with the newly developed Porsche 963.

Porsche AG confirms its medium and long term targets. "Should the economically challenging conditions not further intensify significantly, we expect a Group operating return on sales for the 2023 financial year in the range of 17 to 19 per cent" said their CFO Lutz Meschke, "we are making Porsche even more resilient and our brand stronger than ever". Worldwide sales in 2022 at 309,884 were 2.6 per cent more than the previous year of 301,915 vehicles, from this position of strength Porsche heralded a new era in September 2022 with the biggest IPO in Europe.

Porsche wants to continue with its ambitious electrification strategy with the Macan BEV, and electric 718 Boxster and Cayman arriving in the future. These will be followed by an electric Cayenne, the fourth generation of the SUV will underline their goal of delivering more than 80 per cent of its new vehicles as all electric models in 2030. Also planned is an all new electric SUV positioned above the Cayenne based on the platform SSP Sport.

During 2023 the Cayenne will undergo one of the most comprehensive upgrades in the history of Porsche, the updates to the third generation model include three further developed plug in Hybrids with greater ranges. By the time you read this edition we will have released pricing on April 18th for the new Cayenne, to simulate extreme conditions, the prototypes travel around the world. Taking place in Asia, Africa, Europe and North America, in total, four million test kilometres were covered!

There were demanding off road tests in Spain, punishing sand dunes in Morocco and dynamic ice tracks in Finland. The world premiere is Q2 this year from Shanghai. I have been invited to see and drive the new Cayenne in Tenerife early July, so will be able to report back to you by August. We hope to see the new Cayenne arrive in Australia by the end of the year/or late Q3.

It is no longer a secret that new Porsches are hard to source, the waiting times can certainly be frustrating, we continue to have many more orders than normal, please do not assume that it is an impossible task, we are taking expressions of interest on all of our models and will endeavour to turn these into orders quickly. Our sports cars have been the hardest to secure, especially the 718 series, which are waiting to return to their original factory again in July, after it was closed when the pandemic hit Europe.

We are still opening our all new Porsche Approved Service Centre in 2024 located in Artarmon. As you can imagine, the initial purchase, planning, approval and then actual building always takes longer, especially when the existing tenants do not depart until December this year! Regardless, we have now received approval from Porsche having submitted the plans. In an effort to help the congestion at Willoughby you will now be met by our concierge staff Monday through Friday, they will remove the stress of our inadequate car park!

As always I look forward to welcoming you personally next time you are visiting.