Porsche plans 1,400 new jobs for Tesla-fighting sports car

Porsche will add more than 1,400 new jobs as it revs up development of its first all-­electric sports car to challenge Tesla Motors Inc.
Some 1,200 jobs alone will be added at facilities in and around its main factory in Stuttgart, Germany, the company said at a press briefing yesterday. Porsche is also seeking about 100 information-technology specialists, 50 digital experts and more apprentices, part of an industry wide hiring push as carmakers try to compete with the likes of Google and Apple Inc. in connected-car technology.
“One can in fact describe what is going on now as a ‘war for talent,’” personnel chief Andreas Haffner said at the briefing. The sports car marque has doubled its global workforce to 26,200 employees since 2010 to keep up with booming demand for its Cayenne and Macan sport utility vehicles.
Porsche is spending about 1 billion euros (USD1.1 billion) to introduce its first purely battery-­powered sports car in 2019, a cornerstone of parent Volkswagen AG’s broader push to move beyond its emissions-cheating crisis by offering more low- and zero-emission vehicles. Based on the low-slung Mission E concept shown at last September’s Frankfurt auto show, the electric car will be produced at a new facility near the storied factory that manufactures the Porsche 911 sports car.
Porsche has been weighing bids from Panasonic Corp. and Robert Bosch GmbH to supply long-range batteries for the car, people familiar with the matter said in March. In April, Volkswagen Chief Executive Officer Matthias Mueller said Europe’s largest automaker is looking into starting its own battery production as part of the broader strategy overhaul through 2025. Christoph Rauwald, Bloomberg