Porsche Vehicles North America President and CEO Dr. Kjell Gruner will depart from the corporate, the automaker introduced this week. His go away is efficient July 6, however Porsche hasn’t chosen his successor. The automaker says an announcement will occur within the “close to future.”
Within the meantime, Porsche Vehicles NA COO Joe Lawrence and CFO Thierry Kartochian will lead the enterprise. Each are vice presidents. Porsche didn’t present a motive for Gruner’s departure, and Motor1.com reached out to the automaker to study extra concerning the choice. We’ll replace this story if we hear again.
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Detlev von Platen, a Porsche AG board member for gross sales and advertising and marketing, thanked Gruner “for his glorious work” on the automaker and wished him the very best “each personally and professionally.
Earlier than main Porsche Vehicles North America, Gruner served because the automaker’s vice chairman of selling for Porsche AG from 2010 till he was named Porsche Vehicles NA’s CEO in 2020. His tenure noticed Porsche develop its US retail community to almost 200 websites. He joined Porsche in 1999, working in a number of departments earlier than leaving for Daimler in 2004. He’d labored for Mercedes-Benz Vehicles earlier than rejoining Porsche in 2010 as chief advertising and marketing officer.
Gruner’s departure is simply the current govt shakeup inside Volkswagen Group. Late final month, Audi introduced that it might exchange its CEO, selling Gernot Döllner to the place held by Markus Duesmann since April 2020. Nonetheless, Döllner received’t take over till September 1. Volkswagen Group CEO Oliver Blume, who can also be the CEO of Porsche AG, just lately expressed concern about Audi’s product rollout.
Porsche hasn’t introduced gross sales outcomes for the yr’s second quarter, but it surely did begin 2023 sturdy. Gross sales had been up for each mannequin however the electrical Taycan, with Porsche promoting 17,440 vehicles by the primary three months, 4,400 greater than in 2022. 911 and 718 gross sales had been up 18 and 44 p.c, respectively. World gross sales rose 2.6 p.c final yr to 309,884 vehicles.
Porsche is gearing as much as launch extra electrical autos within the coming years. The Taycan is already on sale, quickly to be joined by the Macan EV. The automaker will electrify the 718 Boxster/Cayman round 2025, adopted by the Cayenne, however the firm has one other bigger electrical SUV in improvement aimed on the Chinese language and American markets.