These tools, which are owned and operated by the brand, work as data collection tools on potential customers. The aim is to track consumers’ digital habits, or “journey,” to help Porsche anticipate what they’ll want to buy—so it knows what to have in stock on the showroom floor. It isn’t happening yet, but it will, Gruner says.
“We have a project called Virtual Build-to-Order where we, with artificial intelligence, try to predict what [clients] will be ordering and try to manufacturer that—bring that already into the pipeline and have that here,” Gruner says. Versions of this idea are used everywhere from fashion malls to grocery stores, though they’re rare in the car world.
So far the revenue from such digital products, as well as finance- and insurance-related apps, is “minimal,” Gruner admits. But he predicts they’ll ultimately influence and impact “100%” of the business.
Inside the Car
Digital emphasis in an actual Porsche vehicle is currently most apparent in the new Taycan, the $80,000 electric sedan that’s the essential prime mover in the automaker’s €1 billion ($1.2 billion) shift to EVs and carbon neutrality.
With its curved driver display and expansive passenger touchscreen totaling 53 inches of unadulterated screen time, plus real-time traffic updates and charging-station mapping, the Taycan is programmed to make smartphone-groomed consumers salivate.
But it’s not quite as fast as a phone. From complete “off” position, the vehicle takes several moments to “wake”—which is why it stays on even when the car is parked and the owner steps away. It turns fully off only when the owner pushes a button on the key fob to “lock” it. Otherwise, it always sits silently “on,” which can drain the battery.
It’s a solution that Gruner says is “not at all” perfect but gets Porsche one step closer to smartphone levels of connectivity. And it can be disconcerting to get out of the car and just walk away, without turning an ignition key or pushing a power button. It helps to have a salesperson there to assure you it’s OK.
“With [the iPhone], startup time is zero—that’s what customers are used to,” Gruner says. “But that is because the phone is always on. If you lock a car, that is like turning off your iPhone. And when was the last time you really turned off your iPhone? Customers are turning on the car, and they expect [claps] it is all there—navigation, whatever. But we have to live with it,” he says. “That customer expectation is coming from those [Apple] devices, like it or not.”
Still, so far, so good: In the first quarter, Porsche delivered 9,072 Taycans worldwide. The number trailed sales of the long-running 911 by just 61 units.
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.