FRANKFURT, Mar 16 – German luxury automaker Porsche said Wednesday it would build its new Cajun SUV in Leipzig, eastern Germany and create more than 1,000 jobs in the process.
The company\’s supervisory board has decided to construct a full-fledged facility in Leipzig with body assembly and painting operations, a statement said, in response to sustained demand for its four-wheel drive models.
Work on the 400 hectare (1,000-acre) site is to begin this year once approval by local authorities has been granted and production could begin in 2013, it added.
Porsche has had operations in the economically-disadvantaged eastern German city since 2002 and its present site employs some 650 people who manufacture Cayenne SUVs and the new four-door Panamera model.
Porsche boss Matthias Mueller said the decision to build the smaller Cajun there was "proof of confidence in the capacities of our workers in Leipzig, as well as a contribution to the region\’s economic development."
The carmaker\’s headquarters is in Stuttgart, southern Germany, where some 5,000 people are employed, along with another 3,000 at a development centre in Weissach, which is also in the German state of Baden-Wuerttemberg.
Additional jobs would be created at those sites too, Porsche said.
