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New Boxster and Caymen swell Porsche’s order book

The 2009 Porsche Cayman S - helping to boost Porsche sales [ad#ad-1] We’ve run stories on how well Porsche, and the whole VW/Audi group, is holding up through the current malaise in the car industry. Porsche’s last lot of profit figures were very impressive, but were mainly due to the huge amounts Porsche made on its trading in VW shares. We noted at that time that Porsche reckoned its sales were slow because people were waiting for the new versions of the Boxster and Cayman, and when that happened sales would increase.

Tesla Model S outselling Chevrolet Volt & Nissan LEAF

Tesla never managed to make any money out of their electric Lotus – the Tesla Roadster – but it does look like they’re on to a winner with their electric  executive saloon, the Tesla Model S. Despite moans that the headline-grabbing sub-$50k Model S was never a reality – and a starting point of $70k – the Model S looks set to outsell the two most successful ‘alternatively fuelled’ cars – the electric Nissan LEAF and the range extender Chevrolet Volt – in the first quarter of 2013. Sales of the electric Nissan LEAF, which costs from $29k in the US, in the first quarter of 2013 were 3,965 units and the Chevrolet Volt, which costs from $40k, sold 4,421 units.

USED CAR MARKET BOUNCED BACK IN JANUARY

BCA’S LATEST Pulse report shows that average values rose in January following the disruption caused by the Arctic conditions and shorter trading period in December. The volume of vehicles being traded also increased – not surprisingly very significantly when compared to December, but also by 10% year on year. Vehicles from both the fleet & lease and part-exchange sectors recorded notable value improvements and part-exchange values reached record levels.