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Originally Posted by clee1982
guess we're just talking about different point, I just don't think BMW can be Porsche without dramatic downsizing
I'm sure some Porsche tech flying to Audi/VW (and vice versa), but for example how does Porsche allocate Porsche Cayenne's R&D, it's entire platform/chassis (PL71/72) is on the same platform that runs VW Touareg/Audi Q7/Porsche Cayenne. If Porsche had to build SUV on its own, not sure how porsche "stand alone" financial will look. Also given how hard VW is going for electric (vs. BMW), I'm sure some of the stuff Taycan used/developing had been in the mind set of "cost sharing"
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I agree. I don't think you can survive in the modern automotive landscape as a "niche" market vehicle unless you're owned by a much larger car company selling to the masses. The modern market requires too much R&D costs to make that feasible. And a lot of those R&D costs are not purely in automotive areas as everyone wants good tech too.
The closest modern example we can look at is Tesla. They started out making electric roadsters trying to chart the top of the driving enthusiasts market. They had to move to the luxury sedan to survive and now are moving to the "cheap" car with the Model 3 to hopefully survive while staying independent... You need volume... Pure and simple.