2021 was a rough year for many automobile manufacturers. Toyota, for example, took over the top spot in the world as General Motors failed to meet demand amidst a massive industry-wide shortage of semiconductors. Many automakers took this as an opportunity to focus on margins rather than outright sales, pushing their chips to more profitable luxury and sports brands rather than the bread and butter entry level machinery. Porsche, then, is one of the major benefactors of that. Volkswagen Group chose to shuffle its chips to Audi, Bentley, and Porsche to keep their assembly lines running, and the strategy has paid dividends.
Porsche is the most profitable per-car automaker in the world, and in 2021 — in the U.S. market at least — it sold more cars than ever before. 70,025 units, to be exact, is how many new Porsche cars rolled out of showrooms this year. It’s a sign of many things, including a rapidly recovering economy, at least among those with enough means to buy a Porsche in the first place.
While many automakers were really feeling the pinch in the fourth quarter of the year, PCNA was actually continuing to set record delivery numbers. Not only was this a huge improvement from the previous year, up 22 percent versus 2020, but it was also 14 percent higher than the previous all-time high record of 2019. Furthermore, the company claims that its order books are more full than they have ever been, with customer demand continuing into 2022 on a pace to set even more records.
“I’d like to thank our loyal customers and welcome every new friend who joined the Porsche family in 2021. Our sales were driven by the strongest and most exciting lineup of cars we’ve ever had, combined with a shared commitment with our dealers to raising the bar for customer experience,” said Kjell Gruner, President and CEO of PCNA. “It was a fascinating year, as sales of the Taycan more than doubled while the 911 benefited from the growing popularity of the icon’s latest generation. We worked together with our dealer network to meet and perhaps exceed the expectations of our customers when it comes to enjoying a Porsche – as confirmed by top rankings from J.D. Power for both sales and service satisfaction. Overall, we enter the new year with even greater momentum for the Porsche brand in America.”
2020 was a tough year, so it’s hardly a surprise that Porsche managed to beat that, but to beat 2019 as well took a lot of effort. Interestingly, a full 17 percent of Porsche’s sales in 2021 were either battery-electric Taycans or plug-in hybrid Cayennes and Panameras. I really can’t wait to see how many all-electric Macans the company manages to sell when that model launches shortly.
When looking at the full picture, it’s obvious that pretty much every car saw a big jump in demand in 2021. Obviously Macan remains the best seller, but Taycan and 911 are fighting for a spot right under the Cayenne. 911 won this year, but just barely. How long until Porsche is an all-electrified brand? It’s sooner than you might think.
Porsche Approved Certified Pre-Owned sales in the U.S. totaled 8,377 vehicles in the fourth quarter, up 18 percent. For the full year 2021, CPO sales were up 10 percent for a record 30,024 deliveries. This means that PCNA and its dealers, for the first time, delivered more than 100,000 cars in total to customers when new and CPO Porsche models are combined, for a 2021 total of 100,049.