Porsche ponders sports car; no decision yet on small sedan
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LOS ANGELES -- Porsche will add at least four new vehicles by 2018, including the Macan mid-sized crossover and 918 Spyder hybrid sports car due next year.
Under discussion are a sports car slotted between the 911 and 918 Spyder and a sedan smaller than the Panamera, which Porsche has been mulling for more than a year.
CEO Matthias Mueller said a decision on the sports car won't be made until the end of next year. If produced, he said, it would be built on the new Volkswagen Group MMB architecture for rear-wheel drive and midengine cars that would also be used for the next-generation Lamborghini Gallardo and Audi R8. Within the VW Group, Porsche is heading development of the MMB platform.
Mueller said the smaller sedan, which has been dubbed the Pajun, for Panamera Jr., "could be a possibility," but he gave no timetable for a decision. The sedan would compete with the BMW 5 series and Mercedes-Benz E class.
Derivatives of the Panamera sedan, such as a coupe, will also be added in the coming years, Mueller said. Porsche showed a Panamera wagon at the Paris auto show in September, but that vehicle has not been approved for production. The Panamera will get a major freshening next year, he said.
 | Mueller: Better fuel economy for new Cayman |
Consideration of a sports car smaller than the Boxster, dubbed the 550, has been indefinitely postponed, he said. Porsche decided the car could dilute its image as a luxury sports car brand.
The second generation of the Cayman coupe debuted at the Los Angeles Auto Show and will arrive in showrooms in the United States next April.
The Cayman shares a platform with the redesigned Boxster that went on sale this summer, and, like its sibling, has a sportier exterior. The redesigned Cayman's fuel economy will be about 15 percent better than that of the current car, Mueller said. Pricing has not been announced.
Mueller, who took over as CEO two years ago, said Porsche has been pumping $1 billion annually into the development of new vehicles and engines. He previously was in charge of product planning and management for the VW brand.
You can reach Diana T. Kurylko at dkurylko@crain.com. -- Follow Diana on 
