Porsche’s Panamera production push spurs €150 million Leipzig investment

leipzig.jpgOrange buildings show planned expansion. Earlier today, we covered AutoWeek’s latest report on the Porsche Panamera. This week, Porsche held the “topping out” ceremony for that car’s new production facility in Leipzig. Part of a €150,000,000 expansion of the Leipzig plant, where the automaker already builds the Cayenne SUV, the Panamera facility is joined by a new logistics center, and the existing Cayenne manufacturing facility will be expanded to include, among other things, an apprentice workshop. That figure, according to the Automotive News, is a quarter more than initially planned.

According to Porsche, once all the work is completed, leipzig should be able to build up to 50,000 Cayannes and Panameras annually once the four-door GT’s production line fires up in 2009. As for the Panamera, its engines will be manufactured at Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen and its painted chassis will come from VW’s Hanover facility. Final assembly will take place in Leipzig. The new car also means that 600 new jobs will be required in Leipzig, and another 500 in Hanover. Porsche’s announcement concludes by saying that the new Panamera facility’s facades should be installed by the end of this summer, after which the automaker will be able to begin installing the production equipment.

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[Source: Porsche AG]