Porsche Holding GmbH

Company type	Subsidiary (GmbH)
Industry	Automotive
Founded	Salzburg, Austria (1949)
Founder	Louise Piëch,Ferry Porsche
Headquarters	Salzburg, Austria
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Hans Peter Schützinger (CEO), Rainer Schroll, Johannes Sieberer,[1]
Services	Automobile distribution andfinancial services
Owner	Volkswagen AG (100%)
Number of employees	35,900[2]
Parent	Volkswagen AG
Subsidiaries	Porsche Informatik,Porsche Bank,Porsche Inter Auto,Porsche Immobilien
Website	www.porsche-holding.com

Porsche Holding GmbH, also known asPorsche Holding Salzburg, is the largest car distributor in Europe. In 2011, the company was sold by thePorsche family andPorsche SE toVolkswagen AG, which is the majority owner of the company.

Porsche Konstruktionen GesmbH was founded byLouise Piëch andFerry Porsche (daughter and son ofFerdinand Porsche) in 1947 inGmünd, Austria. After thePorsche 360 Grand Prix racing car was designed by Ferry Porsche with help from the engineers of his father's design office forCisitalia in 1947, the company started manufacturing thePorsche 356, starting with the prototypePorsche 356/1 and then 356/2 in 1948 at a factory located at a saw mill in Gmünd, and later at a factory in Salzburg.^[3]

AfterFerdinand Porsche was released from a French prison after the war, the production of the Porsche 356 was taken over by Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche GmbH inStuttgart, Germany, and the facility in Salzburg became home to Porsche Konstruktionen as the Austrian importer ofVolkswagen andPorsche products in 1949. Ferry Porsche joined his father's company in Stuttgart, while the Austrian operation was left withAnton Piëch andLouise Piëch, who managed it to become the largest car dealership chain in Austria by 1957.^[4]

By the 1960s, Porsche Konstruktionen became one of the largest distributors of Volkswagen and Porsche products in Europe.

In the late 1960s, Porsche entered many sports cars in races, and to support the factory effort (then calling itselfPorsche System Engineering), external semi-factory teams were set up to share the work load. In the1969 World Sportscar Championship season,Porsche Salzburg became such ade facto second works team, sponsored by Porsche Konstruktionen. Early in the season, at theNürburgring 1000 km, cars were entered asSalzburg Porsche Konstruktionen, but later at Austria'sÖsterreichring, it becamePorsche Salzburg for short. In the USA races, and in CanAm, Porsches were entered asPorsche Audi Division, the North American organisation for both brands.

For homologation, 25Porsche 917 had been built by May 1969, and with several 908 of the 02 and 03 generations, more than enough cars were at hand. The limiting factor were resources, money, personnel, experienced driver combinations.

For the1970 World Sportscar Championship season, the Gulf-sponsored team ofJohn Wyer was the designated factory partner, representingPorsche in motorsport. Already in late 1969 they helped to develop the 917K. The Porsche factory itself did not compete anymore, focussing on development, but Salzburg continued, still receiving factory support asFerdinand Piech wanted to put additional eggs in other baskets. To a lesser degree,Martini Racing was supported also, mainly with loaning a 917L for Le Mans. Usually two cars were entered by Salzburg, withVic Elford andHans Herrmann getting supported by others. Salzburg operated the winningPorsche 908/03 (Elford/Ahrens) in the1970 1000 km of Nürburgring, and the winningPorsche 917K (Herrmann/Attwood) at the1970 24 Hours of Le Mans.

After 1970, the name of Porsche Salzburg disappeared from entry lists, as the second factory-backed team besides Wyer in the1971 World Sportscar Championship season was merged withMartini Racing.

In January 2009,Porsche SE became the largest shareholder of Volkswagen AG, and in March 2011, Porsche SE as well as thePorsche and Piëch families sold the ownership in the Austrian company, which had been reorganized intoPorsche Holding GmbH (Porsche Holding Salzburg), toVolkswagen AG.

Today, Porsche Holding Salzburg is the largest car distributor in Europe, representingVolkswagen Group brands, including Porsche, in wholesale (as importer), retail (through its dealers), and in the after-sales business (service) in 21 countries in Europe, as well as in South America and in China.^[5]

• Porsche (disambiguation)

• Porsche
• Porsche in motorsport
• Companies based in Salzburg

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata