BERLIN, April 9 (Xinhua) -- Porsche delivered 55,700 vehicles in the first quarter of 2019, a year-on-year decline of 12 percent from the previous year, the German luxury car manufacturer announced on Tuesday.
Deliveries in Europe tumbled by 32 percent to 14,004 vehicles. Sales in Germany were down 28 percent.
"2019 has started out challenging for us and for the entire automotive industry," said Detlev von Platen, member of the executive board for sales and marketing at Porsche AG.
"The changeover to the new WLTP test cycle and gasoline particulate filters has continued to occupy us in the first months of the year. In addition, the unusually strong start to 2018 meant that a comparatively weaker first quarter was to be expected," von Platen explained.
In Porsche's biggest market, China, the number of vehicles delivered fell by 10 percent to 16,890 units "due to the weakening overall market and customer reticence in expectation of the announced lower value added tax rate as from April".
In the United States, Porsche's second largest market, the company achieved eight percent growth in the first quarter with 15,024 vehicles delivered.
According to Porsche, its bestselling model in Q1 2019 was the Macan, which was delivered 19,795 times. Sales of the Cayenne recorded growth of 35 percent, with 18,310 vehicles delivered globally.
Porsche said it anticipated a slight overall increase in deliveries in 2019 compared with the previous year.
"In particular the eighth generation of the Porsche 911, which started being delivered in Europe a few days ago, is in high demand from our customers, and allows us to look optimistically toward the future," said von Platen.
In September, the company plans to introduce its first fully electric sports car, the Taycan.
