By 2018, Porsche CEO Matthias Mueller, 57, aims to boost annual global sales to more than 200,000 units, up from 97,000 in 2010. To do so, he will introduce at least one new Porsche every year. Mueller, a former executive at Volkswagen AG, replaced Michael Macht as Porsche AG CEO in October.
From 2003 to 2007, Mueller led VW subsidiary Audi's product development, then coordinated VW Group's overall product strategy.
Mueller spelled out Porsche's challenges in an interview with Harald Hamprecht, editor-in-chief of Automotive News Europe.
Q: What is your vision for Porsche in 2018?
A: Porsche is synonymous with sports cars -- yesterday, today and tomorrow. In addition, in every other segment where we operate, such as with the Cayenne or Panamera, we always offer the sportiest vehicle. At the moment we are hard at work on our future strategy. And, I promise you, it will contain a few exciting surprises.
What are your most important objectives?
We want to remain the world's most profitable car manufacturer and build on this position. We are going to raise the bar even higher in terms of customer satisfaction, employee satisfaction and product quality.
What are the greatest challenges facing your product strategy?
We will improve coordination between our model line product life cycles. Each year we want to celebrate a major event, namely bring a new Porsche to market. We are also revising and improving existing products and looking to see what would bolster Porsche's image in terms of healthy growth.
Can you reach the sales goal set by VW Group boss Martin Winterkorn of 150,000 units by 2015?
I think that if we do everything right we could even achieve that a bit earlier. Our objective is to have more than 200,000 units a year by 2018.
What are your goals for the next-generation 911 that you will bring to market this fall?
The new 911 will be the most successful of all time. Averaged over the life cycle, we want to sell 30,000 units a year. By way of comparison, in 2010 it was 20,000 -- at the end of the life cycle.
What are you going to introduce in 2012?
We will have the 911 Carrera in 2012 in its first full year of production. After this market introduction, we will also launch the entry-level models of the Boxster and the Cayman.
What new variants will there be in terms of body and drivetrain?
With the 911, we are up to 22 derivatives. We use this as an example for the other models.