Porsche and the Stiftung Lesen foundation have launched another five reading clubs at schools in Stuttgart, Böblingen and Ludwigsburg.
Porsche encouraging children to read
To mark World Book Day on 23 April, Jörg F. Maas, Managing Director of the foundation Stiftung Lesen, spoke in the Porsche Newsroom about children’s and young people’s joy of reading. Richy Müller had the opportunity to speak in two capacities – the actor and racing driver is a Porsche brand ambassador and reads to children on behalf of the Stiftung Lesen foundation. Member of the Executive Board responsible for Human Resources Andreas Haffner stressed the importance of getting children to read from an early age: “Children who do not learn to read well early on do not only get off to a bad start – they often also fail to catch up again.” Porsche and the Stiftung Lesen foundation have launched another five reading clubs at schools in Stuttgart, Böblingen and Ludwigsburg. In total, Porsche supports 12 reading clubs in Baden-Württemberg and Saxony.
Ninety years of Porsche engineering services were celebrated in April. Ferdinand Porsche had his engineering office in Stuttgart added to the Commercial Register on 25 April 1931.
90 years of engineering services
Ninety years of Porsche engineering services were celebrated in April. Ferdinand Porsche had his engineering office in Stuttgart added to the Commercial Register on 25 April 1931. Porsche Engineering continues this tradition to this day. The wholly owned subsidiary of Porsche AG is currently expertly focusing among other things on digitalisation. The employees merge their keen understanding of vehicles with software expertisea. Engineers and software developers analyse global and local market trends, further develop technologies and methods, and roll them out in mass production. Porsche Engineering is a global development network comprising nearly 1,500 employees at sites in Germany, the Czech Republic, Romania, Italy and China.
200,000 US dollars for a good cause
In an online auction held in Zurich in April, a Porsche Taycan was auctioned off as a mobile work of art. The seven-day online auction was conducted by RM Sotheby’s and more than 50 bids were submitted for the mobile work of art. Porsche Schweiz donated the entire proceeds in the amount of 200,000 US dollars (185,000 Swiss francs) to the Swiss non-profit organisation Suisseculture Sociale. In this way, Porsche and the project partners are supporting Swiss creative artists, a sector which has been hard hit by the coronavirus pandemic. With the aid of the car wrapping specialists at SIGNal Design, American artist Richard Phillips designed the Taycan Artcar as a one-off. Phillips applied his large painting “Queen of the Night” to the Taycan body.
Cooperation with Penske
Porsche Motorsport and the US racing team Team Penske agreed on close cooperation in May. Starting in the 2023 season, the partners will compete in the major endurance racing series around the world. Using the spectacular prototypes of the LMDh class, which are capable of achieving overall wins, Porsche Penske Motorsport will manage the works appearances in the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) and the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship (IWSC) in the USA. Two hybrid prototypes sporting the Porsche colours will compete in the new top class in both events. The acronym LMDh stands for Le Mans Daytona hybrid. The prototypes will also be put to use by customer teams in both championships in their first year. The cars weighing around just 1,000 kilograms are accelerated by a 500 kW (680 PS) hybrid drive.
Climate action day
On the occasion of Earth Day on 22 April, Porsche underscored its sustainable business ambitions. With #Project1Hour, the employees were encouraged to spend an hour addressing this issue. Porsche put facts about and the consequences of the climate crisis together in an online seminar, gave the employees food for thought with virtual presentations and invited them to participate in a climate quiz with the aim of raising people’s awareness and broadening their knowledge regarding how they themselves can combat climate change. The message clearly sent was that everyone can play a part in preventing CO₂ emissions. #Project1Hour is a campaign of the entire Volkswagen Group, which declared Earth Day to be Volkswagen Climate Day.
A sustainable career with Porsche
In April, Porsche came “face to face” with sustainability – in the Sustainable Career employer campaign, Porsche presented employees who are helping to reduce the company’s environmental footprint. They are driven by the goal of making Porsche the most sustainable brand for exclusive and sporty mobility. The campaign was launched with three clips on the topics of CO₂ reduction, species conservation and electrification. It became clear that the Porsche employees’ passion goes above and beyond sports car construction. They are just as dedicated to, for example, the company’s own biotopes, its bee colonies which produce the company’s own Turbienchen honey and a rock dust facility which is helping to turn car paint residues into cement.
Test-driving of the all-electric Macan
Test-driving of the all-electric Porsche Macan began in May. The Macan electric is scheduled to be rolled out in 2023. Beforehand, the camouflaged prototypes will complete some three million test kilometres under a variety of conditions around the world. Before road testing, the technology was tested virtually on digital prototypes, in other words on calculation models which replicate a vehicle’s characteristics. The Macan electric will be equipped with the innovative 800-volt architecture. It is expected to make an impression among other things with its long range, highly efficient quick charging and reproducible best-in-class performance figures and is to be the sportiest model in its segment.
Porsche “electrifies” its managers
Porsche electrified its fleet of company cars in the spring. Many managers have been authorised to drive a company car and now often get about in a Taycan or a plug-in hybrid. Thanks to attractive offers, more and more employees who are entitled to car leasing are additionally opting for electric models. This is having a noticeable impact on the Porsche fleet – by the end of the year, the proportion of electric and plug-in hybrid sports cars had doubled to 50 per cent. Porsche is pursuing a three-pronged approach consisting of efficient internal combustion engines, plug-in hybrids and all-electric sports cars. Managers also have the option of choosing a 911, a 718 or a Macan, all three of which are only available with an internal combustion engine.
Porsche has been applying a grazing concept since 2002. The site comprises a total of 132 hectares.
Porsche Leipzig championing biodiversity
In spring, an initiative of the Saxony State Foundation for Nature and the Environment registered more than 12,600 square metres of Porsche Leipzig’s off-road terrain as flowering meadows. These are to serve as a habitat for insects. Porsche has been applying a grazing concept across the 132-hectare site since 2002, with wild oxen and Exmoor ponies and specially created ponds and wetlands. Until October, there were also 11 Finnsheep grazing on the grounds. These grazing landscape conservationists created a mosaic of patches with long and short grass, thereby making a contribution to conserving diverse habitats. There are also around three million honey bees living in this off-road biotope, where they can find plenty of food and pollinate the plants.
Design your own Porsche
The Porsche Exclusive Manufaktur has expanded its services. Anyone who buys a Porsche can give it their own, personal touch. The new options include a variety of car wraps, personalised start numbers, printed floor mats, illuminated door entry strips, logo projectors in the vehicle doors and personalised wheel paintwork. If they wish to, the customer can become a designer, freely choosing colours, logos, lettering and texts. Personalised design is made possible by the Porsche Car Configurator. For example, the customer’s own signature can be applied to interior elements such as the leather-lined lid of the centre console. The portfolio is rounded off by personalised car wraps and the customer’s choice of wheel paintwork.
Porsche Engineering opened a second site in Romania in June. The company is further expanding its innovation network with a new research and development office in Timișoara.
Second engineering site in Romania
Porsche Engineering opened a second site in Romania in June. With its new research and development office in Timișoara, the company is further expanding its innovation network for development of the smart and connected vehicle of the future. Porsche Engineering established its first base in the country’s interior in Cluj-Napoca in 2016. This site now has a workforce of 250 working on high-tech automotive projects. The plan is for there to be 200 skilled workers working in Timișoara in the medium term too. The company is interested in software developers who can work on various automotive projects. The focus is on trends such as highly automated driving functions, machine learning and virtual energy management.
More mobile working made possible
Porsche expanded the mobile working options it offers in May. Previously, employees were able to work from anywhere or from home two days a week. Since May, up to 12 days a month have been possible. This is the company’s response to its positive experience during the pandemic. Employees have had the right to work from home since 2014. Porsche introduced a variety of measures early on to achieve a better work-life balance, including flexible working hours, care leave and voluntary sabbaticals.
Taycan added to Porsche Drive Subscription
Porsche Drive Subscription was made even more attractive in May when it became possible for new customers and Porsche fans to also subscribe to the all-electric Taycan. This offer is aimed among others at curious but as yet undecided customers. They are able to put the electromobility experience to the test for six months.
Five new 911 GTS models
The 911 family grew with the addition of five new GTS models, launching the new generation with more power and more driving dynamics than ever before. The six-cylinder boxer engine delivers 353 kW (480 PS) – 22 kW (30 PS) more than the current 911 Carrera S or the previous 911 GTS. The GTS models are available with rear- or all-wheel drive, as a Coupé, a Cabriolet and a four-wheel drive Targa. They feature eight-speed Porsche dualclutch transmission or seven-speed manual transmission and GTS-specific suspension with Porsche Active Suspension Management (PASM) and the 911 Turbo’s high-performance brakes. Black contrasting body elements and darkened headlights are characteristic of the sporty yet understated look.
Nordschleife record set by the 911 GT2 RS
In June, Porsche set a new record for road-legal production sports cars on the Nordschleife of the Nürburgring. In the presence of a notary, Porsche development driver Lars Kern achieved a fastest time of 6:43.300 minutes. The 515 kW (700 PS) 911 GT2 RS driven by Kern was fitted with a Manthey Performance Kit. Driving on road-legal Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 R tyres, Kern shaved 4.747 seconds off the previous record and hit an average speed of 185.87 km/h. Lars Kern succeeded in breaking the record in spite of the hot summer conditions and an asphalt temperature of 41 degrees.
Sustainability an important factor to securing talent
A survey conducted by forsa in June on behalf of Porsche Consulting found that sustainability was a success factor in the competition for talented individuals in the labour market. The opinion polling institute forsa conducted a representative survey among employees in Germany. Among other things, it revealed that four out of ten employees think their employer is still doing too little in the area of environmental and climate protection and should make much more of a commitment. A third of the employees even said they would not apply to the company now for this reason. Sustainability has an important part to play in the day-to-day work of more than half the German population. However, one in three said there was no waay for them to themselves do their bit for sustainability within the company. Six out of ten employees said they would like to see the topic play a bigger part in their day-to-day work.
Porsche invested a high double-digit million figure in the new company Cellforce Group GmbH. This joint venture with the partner Customcells sees Porsche moving into the manufacture of high-performance battery cells.
Joint venture for high-performance battery cells
Porsche invested a high double-digit million figure in the new company Cellforce Group GmbH. This joint venture with the partner Customcells sees Porsche moving into the manufacture of high-performance battery cells. “As a new Porsche subsidiary, the Cellforce Group will be instrumental in driving forward the research, development, production and sale of high-performance battery cells,” says Oliver Blume, Chairman of the Executive Board of Porsche AG. Porsche holds an 83.75 per cent majority stake in the Cellforce Group. The new joint venture is based in Tübingen. A planned production facility is set to have annual capacity of at least 100 MWh. This equates to high-performance battery cells for 1,000 vehicles. The workforce is set to swell from its current approximately 20 jointly recruited employees to up to 80 by 2025. Project funding of around 60 million euros is being provided by the Federal Republic of Germany and the state of Baden-Württemberg. Customcells is one of the world’s leading companies in the development of special lithium-ion battery cells for high performance.
Porsche held a themed week as a signal for tolerance and against discrimination. The importance of diversity of views within the workforce was emphasised.
Porsche takes a stand for diversity
On the occasion of Diversity Day on 18 May, Porsche again sent a clear message of backing tolerance and of being against exclusion and discrimination. During a themed week, the company emphasised the importance of diversity of views within the workforce. Twenty-one digital dialogue formats addressed the value of and opportunities offered by diversity. In addition, a 911 was decorated with messages on the topic of Diversity@Porsche. In adding their signatures to the sports car, the Porsche Executive Board acknowledged diversity of views as an integral part of the corporate culture. Andreas Haffner, Member of the Executive Board responsible for Human Resources: “Our four key values are passion, pioneering spirit, sportiness and one family. Like in any good family, we adopt an open and respectful approach to others. We accept each other in our diversity and complement one another with our individual perspectives and skills, making us even more creative and effective as a team.”
Development of a real-time warning system
In June, Porsche, HERE Technologies and Vodafone announced that they were working on a feasibility study for real-time warning systems. They are examining how 5G technology can be used to identify and locate hazardous traffic situations in real time. Lives can be saved if cars are able to warn one another of hazards. Among other things, HERE Technologies’ Live Sense SDK is being tested. Integrated into devices with front-facing cameras, this uses computer vision and artificial intelligence to identify objects, changes in the behaviour of other road users and road conditions. Warnings then appear in the car in real time with a time lag of less than 10 milliseconds.
40 years after competing in the German Rally Championship in 1981, Porsche surprised two-time world champion Walter Röhrl on his birthday with a newly restored 924 Carrera GTS.
74th birthday surprise for Walter Röhrl
Forty years after competing in the German Rally Championship in 1981, Porsche surprised two-time world champion Walter Röhrl with a restored 924 Carrera GTS. This could be discounted as company sentimentality. But this would be overlooking the strong bond that exists among Porsche employees and the close cooperation between car manufacturers and racing drivers. “The biggest problem was keeping it a secret,” says Kuno Werner, head of the Porsche Museum workshop. Röhrl knows a lot of people there, but everything went according to plan and Röhrl was speechless: “I stepped out of the car 40 years ago and haven’t sat in it again since. I immediately feel 40 years younger.”
