Special Edition: Porsche CEO Michael Leiters on New Supercar Concept

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Of course, Tesla and Musk, they certainly know how to grab headlines. But you know what?

So too does Porsche.

The luxury car maker we're learning right now is unveiling the first look of its reimagined sports car. I don't know if it's going to fly, but it's having a world premiere out in Queens, New York today. And Bloomberg's Matt Miller joins us out of retirement with the CEO of Porsche, Michael Leiter.

Matt. Romain, thanks. Yeah, I'm here with Michael Leiters as they introduce a new car that will be a new line above the 911, something that they've never really done before, maybe with the 928.

To some extent.

I can see a nod in this car to the 928 in the rear and the telephone dial wheels. Talk to me, Michael, about what this is, because it's not a successor to the 918. It's not a one-off supercar like a 959 that you'll only make a few hundred of.

It's going to be an entire model line itself.

Yes, it will be based on a platform with a mid-engine powertrain.

So it will be a supercar, but it will be placed well above the 911.

As you said, we don't want to jeopardize anything on the 911, but it will be a special or particular model line with several derivates. And the platform is very flexible. So regarding the powertrain, we can offer hybrid powertrain or pure ICE. At the end, the customer has to decide and the customer demand will tell us what derivatives and what characteristics we will give this car.

So it was designed for a gasoline-driven powertrain, whether that's hybrid or specifically ICE. My question is, what drives it? Because the most special thing about the 911, as beautiful as it is, as amazing as the design is, is the flat-six screaming behind you.

What's the motor going to be in this?

It's still a secret, we will tell you later, but it will be something which is very much in line with the DNA of Porsche, that I can promise you. And we know how emotional an engine has to be to create the demand and the appeal of the car we need.

One of the things I noticed when I saw the interior is, I mean, it's beautiful. It looks incredibly well done. Your team has done a fine job. There aren't these giant screens. It doesn't look like anyone glued an iPad to the middle. In fact, it looks more like an old 1960s, 1970s 911 on the interior.

Are customers pushing back on all that digitalization? And what are you doing here?

I think it depends very much on the segment and on the use cases of the car.

This is a super.

Sports car, so this is very driving focused, so that's the reason why we reduced the.

Digital element of it.

Anyway, we have to follow innovations and for example the dials, the displays are digital but we have analog needles running on them and we have also some mechanical kinematics behind that to move actually the dials. depending on the mode you choose on the car.

That's very cool.

So the tachometer can literally come out closer to the driver.

Like that, like that, like a camera.

Let me ask about, you know, some other media have said because you spent time at Ferrari as CTO before you went on to run McLaren and now have been brought back to run Porsche, that you were adopting a Ferrari-like model. They have their V8s that are lower priced, although still very expensive, and then they have their V12s, which is sort of the upper level. That's They also run this scarcity model where they don't give you enough and then.

You'll pay whatever they offer.

You can do that, I guess, with this to some extent in the 911, but you still have a big volume business in the Cayenne, the Macan, and others, right?

Yeah.

So first of all, we don't have to copy anybody. Porsche is certified the strongest brand in the world.

Why is that? Because we have one uniqueness. We can do both. We can do high luxury.

Cars, very high scarcity, very exclusive. And at the same time, we can also deliver top premium cars in a more volume and upscaled way. And that is a price and volume point which is very unique, and only Porsche has it.

And that is our concept.

And by the way, we are not talking about a general price increase.

We want to go.

with new cars in new segments which are higher positioned. But regarding the Macan, regarding Cayenne, these cars are well positioned in their segment and we want to evolve this development and the success of these models.

So previously it's been communicated that you were looking for 20% price increases across the board.

Is that not the strategy?

No, 20% on the top 10,000 cars and customers.

So that's the scarcity side of it.

Exactly.

And all the rest is cars that have a good entry point and then you can go.

Higher.

But I think it's very important for us to also bring new customers, younger customers into our brand and therefore we need also the offer of a Macan, of a 718 and and cars that allows you to get also into the we call it b b segment.

Before we talk about those the cayenne macan the 718 uh this car can you give us just a ballpark figure of what it's going to cost the base model.

No i can tell you that it will cost much more than a 911 and i'm i'm very positive about the success of this car because there is a important segment above the 911 sports car segment, And others are in there and there's no reason why we shouldn't be there.

But for the moment, price and volume, still a secret and still to be decided.

Let me ask about the volume business because you said at the Investor's Day you're looking to be able to break even at less than 200,000 cars produced. And I think at one point you produced more than 300,000 and sold more.

Than 300,000 cars a year.

Where is the floor in, for example, the China business, which has been drastically deteriorating?

How low can you go in China on Cayenne, Macan, and so forth?

So in China, I guess we found a niche for our cars, and we want to maintain this niche, but we did, honestly, we did a reset in our planning with our new strategy, because we want to see China as a chance. So we have a niche where our cars, and mainly, by the way, hybrid cars in China for Porsche, perform very well. And if there is a recovery in the market or we bring new models, we can do more.

But the market is still a huge market.

It is still an important market for us in Porsche. We won't give up this market and we earn good money in this market.

Even for your volume business?

Because I look at China and I think with their impossible to beat prices on big SUVs, it should just be a 911 market for you.

No, actually China, we build up the brand in China via our SUVs.

So Porsche is an SUV brand.

And then we introduced the Panamera, which is a very remarkable success and very unique offer in the Chinese market. So the 911 has a strong performance there, but the balance is more on the four-door sports cars.

We are offering.

What about the electrification issues that you've had? You poured so much money into that. Obviously, that started out before you were put in place as CEO. And you wrote down, I think, 1.8 billion euros last year for the EV business. Is that the final write-down? Have you got everything there behind you? Do investors no longer have to worry about that?

I think we have a quite clean table right now. and now again we have to invest because nobody knows what is the future of technology and I personally believe that we will boast technologies in the world. So we have to be prepared for hybrid and ICE and we have to be prepared also for battery electric cars and we are investing in a new battery technology to have more performance, to have better range and to prepare the next generation of battery electric cars for Porsche.

You have, obviously, the electric 718 coming. To be clear, there will be no gas version of the 718. There's no more Cayman with a motor in the back and a stick shift next to you.

No, it won't be.

We have decided now to focus on the electric Cayman and Boxster, and the segment is not big enough to allow us to invest twice in the same segment. So that's the reason why we go now with the 718, which is a fantastic car. I was very skeptical on that until I drove it. It's fantastic. We have a special concept on that. Like a mid-engine, like the 718 with an ICE was too.

And it's fantastic.

And one of the greatest BEV skeptics, Walter Röhrl in Germany, We know him because he's a rally world champion, twice. And he said, I'm enthusiastic about this car.

It's a fantastic car.

He's excited about the 718.

I'm excited because I just had my third child about the new, bigger SUV. I think internally it's a K1 platform. What's the possibility that you can build that here in America? Because Audi may be able to build the Q9 here. You've got, obviously, you're strengthening your relationship with Volkswagen in those terms.

Can you produce, can Porsche produce a car here?

I think we can't do that with our volumes. So to pay off, to pay back these investments, that's too big for us and for us alone especially. And then you have to consider also one is when is a new factory and new plant ready to produce and when do you need a new product? And our new product is sooner than there could be a new factory so far.

This is right now not on the table.

Am I wrong about the internal monikers and not the K1? What are you calling the big three-row SUV to come?

It's an offer above the cayenne. Okay, okay.

Let me ask you, let's go back. I started at Bloomberg in the year 2000.

I would write about Porsche, and back then we would say Porsche, the world's most profitable car maker. I'm sure you want to get back to that, and you started with Porsche in 2000 as well. You spent 13 years there before. You went off to Ferrari and McLaren, come back. What's different about this company that in a lot of ways has stayed the same since its inception? What's different in your experience when you went back to Porsche?

Well, I think we are in a very demanding and volatile world. So the requirements to a company and to an organization are very different. So it's not the stable environment and you can develop step by step. You have to get a very agile, a very adaptive organization. And that is the transformation, the actual transformation we have to do.

It's not only about technologies. To be honest, I think we can manage all technologies together. But to be so flexible and so adaptive, that is a big challenge for us.

All right, so we're here in front of the new, this is the Mission S concept car. You're going to bring out the actual road-going product for sale when?

When it is ready and it's not only depending on this car because I said we won't jeopardize anything on the 911.

So we have to look exactly.

What is the offer sequence on the 911 and when is the best moment to bring this car. But we will keep you updated with more details.

In the future of all this car.

I just saw two pedals in there.

Is it going to be possible that you could add another one and a stick shift, a manual transmission?

Could be possible, yeah. Could be possible.

All right.

Thank you so much. Really appreciate your time. An exciting moment, Romain.

Porsche now developing a new line of cars above the 911 that we can look forward to.

All right, Matt. Well, great interview, though.

I need to know the price, man.

Can I afford this thing or not? Matt Miller there with the Porsche CEO out there at the unveiling here in Queens, New York.

Special Edition: Porsche CEO Michael Leiters on New Supercar Concept

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