The plant responsible for building Porsche's biggest sales success of the last decade has just produced its 500,000th vehicle, a white Cayenne S. As a symbol of the company's commitment and goodwill toward the former East German city, the vehicle will be specially-outfitted for use as a fire brigade command vehicle. Porsche CEO Matthias Mueller handed the keys to Lord Mayor of Leipzig Burkhard Jung as part of a ceremony marking the production milestone.
In addition to recognizing the plant's accomplishment, the occasion also marked the announcement of an expansion of the plant in preparation for the upcoming launch of the
Macan compact SUV. Among the improvements will be a full-fledged stamping and body assembly and paint plant. Currently, chassis for the
Cayenne are delivered to Leipzig from VW's Bratislava, Slovakia plant, approximately 360 miles south of Leipzig.
The expansion represents a 500 million Euro ($629 million) investment in the plant, which will bring an additional 1000 jobs in the medium-term, bringing the total number of employees at the Leipzig facility to approximately 2005. Production for the Macan is scheduled to start in fourth quarter of 2013.