Porsche is forecasting a huge rise in its European sales of new vehicles this year, the company's chief of sales and marketing, Bernhard Maier, disclosed. Specifically, a 20 percent growth rate is expected for the European operations, he told Automotive News Europe, naming the improvements in its dealer network as well as new products as contributing factors to the increase in sales. For 2011, the company is launching its latest variant of 911 as well as diesel and gasoline-electric versions of its Panamera sedan.

Maier's statements were made ahead of the annual shareholders meeting on Friday of Porsche Automobil Holding, the holding company for the sport automaker Porsche AG, which sold around 37,000 cars in Europe and had order intakes for 44,000 last year. Germany was the automaker's largest market in Europe with 13,211 deliveries while the U.K. is its second largest market with 6,796 deliveries, followed by Italy with 3,946 deliveries, says Autonews. The company posted that it sold 97,000 units worldwide in 2010. Maier revealed that the automaker intends to break through the 100,000-unit barrier in 2011 on the back of anticipation that there will be global growth in luxury car sales. In the long run, Porsche intends to double its sales to 200,000 yearly. The company calls this long-term plan as Strategy 2018. Other brands within the Volkswagen group have similar names for their strategies: Road15 for Audi and Mach18 for VW brand. In addition, Maier disclosed that Porsche will announce a new brand strategy this summer.