Porsche bites back
In a speech this afternoon in London, Wendelin Wiedeking, the boss of Porsche has hit back at critics.
Speaking at the Autocar Awards, where he received the award for Outstanding Achievement, he joked that the award must have been decided before the announcement that Porsche had bought a major shareholding in Volkswagen. "That announcement had the same effect on my chances of this award as dropping a concrete block into a lake." He was adamant that the tie up made sense for both companies as it permitted long-term strategic planning. He said that the criticism in the British financial press was a result of hedge funds, "based just down the road from here" being disappointed that they could not buy VW and make a quick buck.
He also said that there is no particular limit to how big Porsche could become. Wiedeking believes that there is no reason why Porsche could not grow past 100,000 units a year and keep its exclusivity. Given that Audi, BMW and Mercedes will all be over a million cars a year by 2008, that seems reasonable.
Source: Verdict on Cars