Luxury sports car manufacturer Porsche reported a 4.8 percent increase in wordwide deliveries year-over-year to 9,613, the Stuttgart-based company said Wednesday.

Porsche also announced Wednesday a new top that combines the benefits of a hard and a soft top (Porsche).

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“The good start in January shows that we have evidently set the correct course with our product offensive. This result picks up where last year’s good results left off,” Bernhard Maier, Executive Vice President Sales and Marketing of Porsche AG said.

Deliveries in January 2012 rallied in all regions of the world. In the German domestic market, the sports car manufacturer excelled with an increase of 16 per cent. In Europe, the previous year’s performance was trumped by 6.3 per cent. Scandinavia and Russia especially accounted for much of this growth. In the USA, Porsche delivered 2,550 vehicles to customers; an increase of 6.3 per cent compared with January 2011. Sales of 2,261 units in China were on a par with last year’s result, notwithstanding the fact that the Chinese New Year national holiday fell in this month.

The sports car manufacturer’s most popular model in January 2012 was the Cayenne SUV, almost 4,900 of which were delivered to customers worldwide. To meet the high demand, a third shift was introduced for the very first time at the end of January at the Porsche works in Leipzig. In the past month, Porsche delivered 30 per cent more Panamera sports saloons than in January 2011. The 911 model range also exceeded expectations at the beginning of the year: sales of more than 1,500 of the classic sports cars represent an increase of 14.9 per cent compared with January last year. The most popular model variant was the new 911 Carrera S, 432 units of which were delivered to customers.