Despite a tumbling economy where recession fears gain ground each day, car demand is rising for at least one auto maker. It looks like even in a recession people continue to need cars, and the good times are rolling for carmaker Porsche SE which reported that its first-half profit rose 44%. For this period, the sports car maker counted strong sales for its Cayenne sport-utility vehicles.Porsche's profit climbed to 1.3 billion euros ($1.97 billion), compared with 897 million euros in the same period last year. A stake increase in Europe's biggest carmaker Volkswagen over the past two years made Porsche post a strong gain in its earnings numbers during the six months ended January 31.
Taking a look at the company's first-half revenue, we see a growth of 14% to 3.49 billion euros as Cayenne's first-half sales doubled to 20,340 SUVs, despite surging gasoline prices. The increase in Cayenne sales resulted in a 19% gain in overall deliveries. Thus, first half deliveries climbed up to 46,600 vehicles. The strong gains in Cayenne sales offset lower demand for the popular Porsche 911, whose sales fell 5.6% to 16,360.
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