'Even Dr. Ing. H.c.F Porsche AG, Stuttgart, cannot escape the current economic crisis in the automobile industry.' With this declaration leading off a tersely worded press release on Tuesday, Porsche announced that production at its main plant will be shut down on seven unspecified days between now and the end of January.

Porsche already shut down production for one day at its Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen plant last Friday. The company said its workers have accumulated enough overtime hours that their pay will be unaffected by the production halts.

The automaker also said it is 'no longer expecting to achieve' the same number of sales in 2008-'09 as the 98,562 units it sold in the preceding fiscal year. Porsche, which reports earnings today, has seen its stock drop 62 percent this year, Bloomberg News reported.

Financial analyst Christoph Stuermer of IHS Global Insight in Frankfurt, quoted by Bloomberg News on Tuesday, said Porsche's target market may still be able to afford the cars but most likely are 'reacting to the fact that it may be inappropriate to pull up in a new Porsche when their neighbor's house is being foreclosed.'