August 13, 2007 -- 08:49 CET
German auto supplier Paragon AG will start delivering its exclusive Artega GT sportscar to customers from mid-year 2008.
Artega Automobil GmbH & Co has a medium-term annual production goal of 500 units and is building a green-field factory in order to meet customer demand.
“The whole project is quite clearly ambitious but it is not careless,” Paragon boss, Klaus Dieter Frers, told Automotive News Europe’s sister publication Automobilwoche in an interview.
The fully equipped Porsche rival is designed to showcase Paragon’s expertise.
“With the Artega we want to show that we have developed from being a supplier of components to a development partner for complex systems,” said former Rolls Royce manager Frers.
Artega has been spun off from Paragon AG, meaning that the auto supplier has no responsibility if the sportscar project fails. If it is a success, however, then Paragon’s shareholders are set to benefit.
Frers said the car would break even long before the 500th unit was sold.
“As a careful businessman you do not risk everything,” he said.
Costing around 74,000 euros, the rear-engine Artega GT is powered by a 3.6-liter Volkswagen AG V6 FSI gas unit coupled to VW’s DSG gearbox.
Several dozen orders have already been taken and Frers expects to sell around 170 units in the first year of production.
The Artega GT was displayed at the Autosalon in Geneva at the beginning of the year, albeit without an engine. A production version of the car will be on show at the Frankfurt IAA in September.
Artega hopes to find six dealers in Germany by the third quarter of next year before seeking partners in other European countries. In the medium-term Artega is seeking partners in North America, Asia and the Middle East.
The car is being built at a new factory in Delbrück, western Germany.
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Source:
Tom Armitage
Automotive News Europe
