SHANGHAI - Porsche AG aims to increase its worldwide dealer network nearly 30 percent.

"Right now we have 700 dealers globally. By 2015, we will probably have 200 more," sales and marketing boss Bernhard Maier told Automotive News Europe.

The number of people working for the independent Porsche dealers is supposed to grow from 14,000 to about 20,000 employees, Maier added in an interview at the Shanghai auto show. One exemption is the United States, where Porsche expects to reduce the number of dealers slightly from 200 to 190 by 2015.

Globally, the company aims to surpass 100,000 sales this year according to Maier, from 97,000 in 2010. Well-informed Porsche sources told ANE that the global sales should grow by a double-digit percentage figure to at least 107,000 units in 2011.

Sales of the Panamera sedan alone could rise 24 percent to 28,000 units, Porsche sources said. Maier wouldn't confirm that figure, but said the Panamera "is exceeding all our expectations. Last year we sold 22,600 units. This year we want to increase this figure significantly thanks to new derivatives."

Maier said China is on track to surpass the United States as Porsche's biggest market. "In two to three years I expect a shoulder-to-shoulder race with China," he said. "And this is despite the fact that the U.S. is really developing superbly. Our order intakes in the first quarter are 34 percent above last year's period." In 2010, Porsche sold about 25,000 light vehicles in the United States and 15,000 in China.