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Title: Authors: Source:
Abstract:
Accession Number: Database:
Record: 1 Porsche AG.
Purdy, Elizabeth Rholetter, PhD
Salem Press Encyclopedia, January, 2016.
The history of Porsche AG’s highperformance luxury automobiles began in 1931 when engineer and former Daimler executive Ferdinand Porsche (1875–1951) opened his own shop, with his son Ferry (1909–98) joining a few years later. The cars were initially intended for the racetracks rather than ordinary roads. After World War II, father and son worked together to design the Porsche 356, the road car that would make the company famous. They built the company into one of the most respected automobile manufacturers in the world, and Porsche AG has maintained its reputation for building luxury cars as well as more affordable models.
113931082
Research Starters
Porsche AG
Last reviewed: October 2016
Company information
Date Founded: 1931
Industry: Automotive
Corporate Headquarters: Stuttgart, Germany
Type: Public
The history of Porsche AG’s highperformance luxury automobiles began in 1931 when engineer and former Daimler executive Ferdinand Porsche (1875–1951) opened his own shop, with his son Ferry (1909–98) joining a few years later. The cars were initially intended for the racetracks rather than ordinary roads. After World War II, father and son worked together to design the Porsche 356, the road car that would make the company famous. They built the company into one of the most respected automobile manufacturers in the world, and Porsche AG has maintained its reputation for building luxury cars as well as more affordable models.
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A 2012 NAIAS Red Porsche 991 convertible. By Calm Vistas (As classic as they get) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
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Ferdinand Porsche, founder of the Porsche car company. Bundesarchiv, Bild 18320051017525 / CCBYSA 3.0 [CC BYSA 3.0 de (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/bysa/3.0/de/deed.en)], via Wikimedia Commons
In the twentyfirst century, Porsche AG is a global company, with plants and subsidiaries all over the world. However, it is still very much a German company, with facilities in a number of German cities. Porsche automobiles are still built in Zuffenhausen, which is also home to management and logistics teams. In 1972
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Porsche established a research and development center in Weissach, which also houses design offices and the motor sports department. Customer service is centered in BietigheimBissingen. Since it began producing race cars in the 1950s, Porsche vehicles have won more than thirty thousand auto races.
History
With the introduction of the 356 in 1948, Porsche AG began its practice of naming vehicles after the number assigned to its design project. The first fiftytwo Porsche automobiles had been built by hand at a garage in Gmund, Austria, but the success of those cars allowed Porsche in 1950 to begin building car bodies as well as engines in a garage in Zuffenhausen, a suburb of Stuttgart. That same year, the first Porsche was imported to North America. After the death of Ferdinand Porsche in 1951, Ferry Porsche continued to build up the company’s capabilities and expand its reputation. With the 1953 introduction of the 550 Spyder, made famous by actor James Dean, Porsche AG began to be considered in the same category as luxury automakers Ferrari, Jaguar, Maserati, and Aston Martin. Demands for a more affordable Porsche led to the introduction of the Speedster in 1954. By the end of the decade, Porsche was forced to outsource body production to meet high demands.
In the 1960s, Porsche set up distribution areas across Europe and debuted the 911 in 1964. The 911’s rear engine design set the standard for Porsche automobiles. Again rejecting the notion of outsourcing, Porsche acquired its subcontractor, allowing it to resume manufacturing its own automobile bodies and stepping up annual production to eleven thousand cars. By middecade, Porsche had premiered the fourcylinder 912, melding the features of the 911 and the older 356. Innovations of the period included the removable roof of the 1966 Targa and the semiautomatic transmission of the 1967 Sportomatic. The 911 S of 1967 remains a classic.
Porsche continued to produce some less expensive models in the 1970s, debuting the 914, with a fourcylinder Volkswagen engine, in 1970. Two years later, Ferry Porsche left management, opting to become chair of Porsche AG’s supervisory board. By 1976, the 911 Turbo had become available in the United States. That same year, Porsche AG began producing cars with frontend engines, such as the fourcylinder 924. Porsche manufactured its first automobile with an eightcylinder engine in 1978, called the 928, and it was followed by the more powerful 924 Turbo. In 1982, Porsche Cars North America was established in Reno, Nevada. The following year, the 911 Cabriolet debuted in the United States. By the end of the decade, Porsche had built a new factory to produce automobile bodies and had agreed to build a highperformance sedan for Mercedes Benz.
By the last decade of the twentieth century, Porsche AG had built a solid reputation, but the company had begun experiencing major financial problems and was facing the possibility of a hostile takeover. Wendelin Wiedeking, the company chair, turned the company around by appealing to owners with more modest means and by refocusing efforts on the vehicles that had made a significant impact on sports car enthusiasts the world over. The result of Porsche’s new focus was the Boxster, which paid homage to the classic 550 Spyder. Porsche continued to produce both rearwheel and allwheel drives, and the Carrera 2 in 1991 offered a choice between a fully automatic transmission and a clutchless manual drive. By middecade, Porsche had produced its one millionth car.
Impact
Porsche has begun to appeal to a wider audience. With the Boxster, it drew a slightly younger customer base than its usual customer—between thirtysix and fiftyfive as compared to fortysix to sixtyfive. Moreover, although about 90 percent of 911 owners were male, the Boxster of the 1990s was designed to appeal to women also, and about 30 percent of Boxster owners were female. In 2003 Porsche debuted the Cayenne Turbo and the
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Cayenne S sport utility vehicles, and the Panamera came out in 2009. The Cayennes and Panameras also proved quite popular among American women.
In the 2010s, Porsche returned to its founder’s engineering roots: electric cars. In 2015, with the Porsche Mission E concept car, Porsche unveiled its plans for its first allelectric fourseat sports sedan, which could travel more than 500 kilometers (310 miles) before requiring a recharge. The Mission E hypothetically requires only 3.5 seconds to go from 0 to 100 kilometers (62 miles) per hour.
A few years earlier, in 2009 Porsche had opened a museum in Zuffenhausen, allowing it to exhibit over eighty vehicles at a time. Around the same time, however, Porsche’s involvement in Nazi Germany became more widely known. Father and son developed the prototype of the Volkswagen Beetle at the behest of the Third Reich. During World War II, they also directed the production of military vehicles, utilizing forced labor to help manufacture them and later parlaying profits from that period into the Porsche automotive operation after the war. The company has paid reparations to some survivors but has been reluctant to address the issue.
The early twentyfirst century also saw Porsche involved in a securities scandal in response to its purchase of 31.5 percent of Volkswagen, beyond its existing 42.6 percent stake. Porsche officials claimed they had been trying to save Volkswagen from a hostile takeover. However, more than thirty international hedge funds accused CEO Wendelin Wiedeking and CFO Holger Haerter of securities fraud, claiming that they had started rumors that Porsche was taking over Volkswagen in order to inflate Volkswagen stock. Investors lost $38.1 billion when Volkswagen shares plummeted, and then filed suit against Porsche. Ultimately, it was determined that the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 did not give American courts authority over international securities transactions, however. Because of the global financial crisis in the late 2000s, Porsche ended up being bought out by Volkswagen in 2009 instead.
Bibliography
Albus, Volker, Reyer Kras, and Jonathan M. Woodham, eds. Icons of Design: The 20th Century. Munich: Prestel, 2004. Print.
Daniels, Jeff. The Anatomy of the Car: One Hundred Years of Development from the Benz Tricycle to the 1988 Porsche. London: Todd, 1990. Print.
Klawitter, Nils. "Porsche’s Past: The Dark PreHistory of the World’s Favorite Sports Car." Spiegel Online International. Der Spiegel, 1 Oct. 2009. Web. 19 Aug. 2016.
"Porsche AG Historical Background 1948–2007." Porsche. Porsche, 2016. Web. 19 Aug. 2016.
Rieger, Bernhard. The People’s Car: A Global History of the Volkswagen Beetle. Cambridge: Harvard Coll., 2013. Print.
Scoltock, James. "Taking It Higher." Automotive Engineer 40.8 (2015): 16–21. Print.
"Securities." International Law Update Oct.–Dec. 2015: 96–103. Print.
Wiedeking, Wendelin. "A Chat with Porsche’s Wendelin Wiedeking." Interview. Ed. Douglas Harbrecht. Bloomberg. Bloomberg, 12 Jan. 2001. Web. 19 Aug. 2016.
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