Porsche to Open New Digital Center in Silicon Valley
The new office will be a California-based outpost of the automaker’s digital division in Ludwigsburg, Germany.
Proving it's no longer enough just to make a great car if you're not wheeling and dealing in the technology sector as well, Porsche has announced that it will open a new digital office in Silicon Valley, Automotive News reports.
The Santa Clara, California office will house about 100 people, and will be an outpost of the Volkswagen AG subsidiary's recently launched digital division, which opened in Germany in 2016 to execute revenue-generating digital services like parking, traffic, and remote vehicle-monitoring apps for Porsche vehicles. Porsche's goal is for digital services to account for 10 percent of annual revenue in the medium term, according to AN.
Porsche Continues to Grow Tech Portfolio
The Silicon Valley connection is the latest in a string of tech-focused announcements from the iconic sports-car brand, including stakes in venture-capital fund e.ventures and Evopark, a parking-services company, and a new technology lab for developers in Berlin.
Porsche's Silicon Valley lab will be run by former Gartner digital mobility analyst Thilo Koslowski, who called the automobile "the ultimate mobile device of the future" in a statement on Friday. “This means it is particularly important to be right next door to leading IT companies in the USA, as this allows us to identify trends early and invest in new technologies at the right time," Koslowski added.
"In addition to our own potential for innovation, above all we want to form strong partnerships.”
