Rides : Porsche to increase production; can’t keep with Cayenne demand

German sports carmaker Porsche has sold 60,650 cars in the first six months of the year, a 36 percent increase on a year ago according to sales chief Bernhard Maier.

Moreover, the executive told news agency dpa that the automaker expects to reach annual sales of over 100,000 for the first time this year, with the Cayenne SUV model proving a particularly good seller.
Demand for the sporty SUV, which starts at $48,200, caused delivery times to peak to as high as 12 months in markets such as China. Porsche wants waiting time to be no longer than six months.

“We’re now looking into ways we can expand production capacity to be able to serve our customers more quickly,” Maier said at the Stuttgart, Germany-based automaker’s headquarters. “First-half data show that we’re growing almost consistently in all world markets and across all model lines.”

Porsche SE , which jointly owns the sports-car maker with Volkswagen AG (VOW), plans to merge with the Wolfsburg, Germany-based manufacturer.
Backed by VW’s resources, the maker of the 911 aims to double sales to about 200,000 vehicles by 2018 by adding a compact SUV and increasing sales in emerging markets.
Also, Porsche is mulling the addition of a new supercar to its line-up that will be placed above the top-of-the-line 911, the Porsche 911 GT2 RS. The new car will be placed above the GT2 RS and the 918 Spyder hybrid.