Porsche's nine-month China sales plunge by third

STUTTGART (Reuters) - German sports car maker Porsche on Friday posted a 29% nine-month sales drop in China, joining peers BMW and Mercedes in reporting weaker results in the country.

The slump in China, the world's biggest car market, and the ongoing model revamp weighed on the overall result, with global sales falling by 7% to 226,026 units in January-September.

Chinese consumers are increasingly reluctant to spend money on luxury goods because of faltering economic growth resulting from a real estate crisis in the country.

Among models, its large-engine sports car Panamera and battery-electric sedan Taycan saw the biggest drops, of 20% and 50%, respectively, especially in China.

"2024 is a particularly challenging year for us with limited product availability in some cases," Porsche's board member Detlev von Platen said in a statement.

(Reporting by Andrey Sychev, Editing by Miranda Murray)