Last week, Automotive News featured our Founder & CEO Todd Blue in the publication’s “Q+A” section. Mr. Blue is a member of the Porsche Dealer Board of Regents, and he took a moment to chat with the editorial team at Automotive News about the exciting future of Porsche and the nuances of the 2018 model year. Read a snippet of his interview here, and view the entire article on autonews.com.
Automotive News: How was 2017 for Porsche dealers?
Todd Blue: Fantastic. The connectivity to the dealer body is outstanding.
What major issues do Porsche dealers face?
In 2018, we have a transition year where [the redesigned] Cayenne doesn’t come till the third quarter. Pacing ourselves, with anticipation of what will be our best-selling vehicle, is a balancing act for Porsche dealers, but we’ve got some good planning.
Also our 911 volume is a little backloaded toward the end of the year. But things are in good balance with the product mix. We’ve got some really wonderful and new and fresh products at the beginning of the year like the GT 911s — the GT2 RS, the GT3s. We’re getting that now, which is very helpful.
What does the board of regents hope to accomplish in 2018?
Even though we’re talking about 2019, 2020 for Mission E, we are very focused on everything we’re doing on the electrification of Porsche. The time is now to be planning, thinking, strategizing. We are making more than just baby steps toward electrification, which is going to be a revolutionary thing for this company and the industry.
Porsche has committed to a major push on electric. Is it doing enough to get dealers ready to sell them?
There are meetings scheduled, in a healthy staggered way, between now and the arrival of that vehicle to get dealers ready. Nothing will be a surprise to any of the dealers. Porsche is on this. We’ll be ready, and they are getting us ready through a tremendous amount of communications.
What specific changes will need to happen at the dealership?
Whether it’s the number of amps required for the fast-charge system to charge these vehicles from a zero battery to 80 percent in 15 minutes, that’s going to be a huge point of differentiation, especially in the beginning, for Porsche. All the ways to handle the batteries, both the physical way as well as the maintenance, is all being discussed.
Read the full interview here.
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