Porsche chooses China for entry into sedans

SHANGHAI — Porsche unveiled its entry into the luxury sedan market here on Sunday night, the eve of the Shanghai auto show. It was the latest confirmation of the importance of the Chinese auto market and the first time that Porsche has entered a new market segment at an auto show outside Europe or North America.

Auto sales rose 10 percent last month in China to a record, and exceeded sales in the United States for the third month in a row as the world’s largest single-country market. That has prompted automakers from around the world to pay particular attention to the Chinese market, with a range of models to be introduced here.

Subcompacts and very small and simple minivans are the fastest-growing segment of the Chinese market. But China has also emerged as the world’s second-largest market after the United States for a growing number of luxury car brands, and become the focus of energetic marketing by luxury manufacturers.

The global economic slowdown, which trimmed Chinese growth to a still respectable 6.1 percent in the first quarter, has hurt luxury car sales, although less than in many other markets. Luxury car sales fell 8 percent in the first two months of this year compared with the period a year ago, according to the research firm J. D. Power and Associates.

"This year there will be some impact, but when the economy recovers, this segment will also grow," said Yale Zhang, a Chinese market forecaster in the Shanghai office of CSM Worldwide, a global automotive consulting firm.

Not one of the models to be unveiled at the Shanghai auto show, which starts on Monday, has drawn more discussion in the auto industry than Porsche’s entry, the Panamera. It is Porsche’s first sedan after more than six decades of manufacturing sports coupes and, since 2002, the Cayenne car-based sport utility vehicle.

Klaus Berning, Porsche’s executive vice president for sales and marketing, acknowledged that the timing for entering a new market segment was difficult but said the company had received enough orders that it expected to meet its goal of selling 20,000 a year. “The current orders already make us very comfortable and optimistic,” he said.

Company executives said that the car would start at $89,800 in the United States and more, sometimes much more, in countries with higher taxes. The turbo version with a V-8 engine will cost 2.5 million yuan, or $366,000, in China, which has stiff import taxes and heavy taxes on family vehicles with large engines.

Porsche executives said that they expected the car to have better fuel efficiency than most luxury sedans, describing this as necessary for "social acceptance" at a time of international worries about global warming. They did not provide gas mileage statistics for the Panamera, however.

A dark gray Panamera rolled onto a stage Sunday night on the 94th floor of the 1,614-foot Shanghai World Financial Center, the tallest building in mainland China, having been wedged nearly vertically into an elevator barely wide enough for the task. With long, smooth lines, the Panamera looked like a Porsche — arguably more so than the much taller Cayenne.

The rounded sides of the Panamera’s front end are considerably higher than the hood, and the length of the front end compared with the passenger compartment preserves the image of power projected by the 911 series and the less expensive Boxster. With a long low rear window, the Panamera avoids looking like a lower-riding version of the Cayenne, which has been much scorned by sports car enthusiasts.

To attract performance-car enthusiasts, the Panamera comes with a rear spoiler that automatically deploys from the back of the car at high speeds, using the air flow over the vehicle to help keep the rear wheels tightly pressed to the pavement for better control.

In Asian countries like China with high levels of income inequality, wealthy car buyers frequently have chauffeurs. While Porsche purists tend to believe that the driving experience is the whole point of buying a Porsche, offering a spacious back seat could make the Panamera competitive as a chauffeured car.

In an indication of how far the Panamera is from Porsche’s traditional offerings, the company estimates that 90 percent of the car’s buyers will be new to Porsche.