Porsche

Porsche was founded in 1931 by Ferdinand Porsche and his son Ferry (Ferdinand Anton) Porsche. Ferdinand Porsche was also the original designer of the VW Beetle that remained the Volkswagen standard for more than fifty years (1938-2003). When the car company was ordered by the German Government in 1933 to make a car that would be good for the masses, and thus the Porsche 64 was created through development and standardization that allowed many of the parts to be taken from the VW Beetle. It hit the German market in 1939. Ferdinand’s own son helped in the design department by creating his own vehicle, due to him never finding what he wanted in a car, and that became the 356. After the Second World War, the company began production that was severely hampered by a shortage of all materials. This lead them to have the 356 use beetle parts, such as the gears, the engine, and the small suspension system – but even with these donated parts the car had several key innovations that allowed to be a success and to drop the beetle parts over time, with the last ones being completely of Porsche manufacturing. Unfortunately in 1951 Ferdinand Porsche passed away from a stroke; however his son stepped in and took the reigns.

Seeing success in the Porsche 550 Spider, they soon developed a newer sleeker vehicle called the 911 and they are still in mass production as the 997. In the 70s the company changed legal format so that it now had a board of directors and several departments, with its first CEO. From this spawned the 928 – the first replacement to the 911 series… but the 911 has outlived the 928 for 12 years now. From 1993 to 2002 the grandson of Ferdinand Porsche was chairman of Volkswagen, and through his efforts Porsche remained renowned for its engineering, and its class. In 2002 a new manufacturing facility opened in Leipzig in Saxony, along with the unveiling of a brand new vehicle the Cayenne.

Three years ago the famed Carrera GT began production with a price tag of 400k+ and a horsepower rating of 605 out of the lot. Throughout this decade the Porsche family has been in full control of the company through stockholding shares, and recently they have bought more shares in Volkswagen, and now have a minority blocking vote- meaning that if they don’t like a decision by Volkswagen they can and most likely will block it from occurring, in addition to this they are also investing more and may one day have a majority share depending on how much more they buy. Today the most popular vehicle that Porsche manufactures is still the 911 line; however the Cayenne has occasionally taken first in North American markets.

In the most recent development as of this month the EU courts have ruled a law invalid, which was one that stated that no shareholder can exercise more than 20% control despite having a larger sale – leading to the possibility of Volkswagen being taken over. In order to prevent this the Porsche family has increased shares past the 30% mark in an effort to keep the company as-is, and looks to be prepared to take it over themselves should another attempt to do so.