Carmaker Porsche turns 70

A cult brand is born: On June 8, 1948, the 356 No. 1 Roadster received its operating permit. It was the first vehicle to wear the name Porsche. 50 years later, that car was damaged when it fell off a plane pallet. Luckily, it survived the drop from a height of several meters. Today, the refurbished Roadster can be admired in the Porsche museum in Stuttgart.

...Ferdinand Anton Ernst Porsche, nicknamed Ferry. Without him, neither the 356 nor the 911 would exist. Over five decades, Ferry shaped the sports carmaker as CEO and chairman. His father, Ferdinand Porsche, also built vehicles — for Volkswagen. Ferdinand's biggest task was to develop the predecessor of the VW Beetle, which Hitler thought would mobilize the masses.

The first Porsche was presented to the public only a few years after World War II. Needless to say, sports cars weren't exaclty what people needed in those trying times. Over the years, however, Ferry Porsche and his brand were able to assert themselves. "We build cars which nobody needs, but everybody wants," he said.

It took Porsche almost half a century to sell 1 million sports cars. from then on, though, production accelerated rapidly: The latest million Porsches didn't even take five years to leave showrooms. In 2017 alone, more than a quarter million vehicles left the assembly lines, and over the last decade, Porsche sales have more than tripled.

In the mid-2000s, the small carmaker tried to hit it big by attempting to take over Germany's Volkswagen giant. The plan, however, didn't pan out. Today, a holding company called Porsche SE owns the majority of VW, while Porsche Corporation, which builds the cars, was incorporated into the VW Group.

For decades, Porsche cars relied on diesel engines. That changed with the rise of SUVs, which also had diesel models fitted with engines from VW brand Audi. This is how Porsche, too, was sucked into the dieselgate scandal.

Former VW bosses Matthias Müller (left) and Martin Winterkorn were suspected of fraud and market manipulation as share holders of Porsche SE Holding were allegedly informed too late about the pollution scandal. Porsche SE is a holding company of the Porsche and Piëch families who together hold 52.2 percent of voting rights of VW's ordinary shares.

Porsche's first electric model is to hit the market in 2019, with a range of more than 500 kilometers (310 miles) and fast-loading capability — at least that's what the sports carmaker has promised. Further models are expected to follow, also in cooporation with VW Group brand Audi. Porsche wants to invest €6 billion ($7 billion) in e-mobility by 2022,

Porsche expects 2018 to be another record-breaking year in terms of sales. After all, more and more people seem to share Walter Röhrl's sentiment: The legendary German rally driver once called a garage without a Porsche 911 a "dull, empty hole."