James Kon
Member of global sensation Korea girl band Blackpink Jennie Kim, known simply as Jennie, has her very own personal Porsche Taycan, built based on the Taycan 4S Cross Turismo.
Jennie’s latest luxury car from Porsche is part of the Sonderwunsch programme in collaboration with Porsche Korea. The programme, from the late 70s, makes it possible to design individualised one-off cars in future that are co-created by the customer and realised professionally by Porsche.
The Blackpink member when sharing the experience of designing her own car said, “Being able to collaborate so intensively on my own very personal Porsche was an amazing experience.
“I’m especially proud of having designed the visualisation of the clouds,” she continued.
“I spend a lot of time travelling around the world – the sky and the clouds are my travelling companions and a beautiful symbol of these unique experiences.
“This is why I feel a special connection to them and am so passionate about photographing these nature motifs.”
According to Vice President, Individualisation and Classic at Porsche Alexander Fabig, “Jennie had very specific images of her dream Porsche.
“Working together with international customers on these special projects is particularly exciting and enriching. In this case we were also faced with interesting challenges that motivated us as a team to be able to make even the most creative wishes come true.”
He recalled, “In a digital workshop that ran for several hours, the experts on the Sonderwunsch team at Porsche Exclusive Manufaktur and the Style Porsche design department worked together with the artiste to work out all the details of the Taycan 4S Cross Turismo.
The car was customised in the Sonderwunsch department of the Porsche Exclusive Manufaktur workshop in Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen.
Grant Larson has been with Style Porsche since 1989, and as project manager for special projects. He is responsible for Sonderwunsch work within the design department. Larson said, “As an artiste, Jennie is used to creative collaborations. She brought a mood board to our meeting that visualised the initial ideas and reflected their reception.”
Meanwhile, Chief Executive Officer of Porsche Korea Holger Gerrmann said, “It was an exciting experience working with Jennie on Porsche Korea’s first Sonderwunsch project. She is an influential global icon that represents a generation of young and creative opinion leaders and the ‘Generation Z’ in Korea.
“I was impressed by her commitment and ideas, which went into her very personal Porsche,” he added. “With the new Sonderwunsch programme, we are pursuing the goal of enabling people with very different lifestyles to make their dream of the perfect sports car come true.”
In 2021, Porsche delivered 8,425 cars in South Korea – up seven per cent on the previous year.
The Taycan, launched there at the end of 2020, was one of the success factors. With 1,288 units in 2021, the electric sports car had already jumped to second place behind the Cayenne (3,480 units).
While the mid-engine 718 series was comparatively slow with 632 deliveries, this was still an increase of 30 per cent for South Korea.
Among the personal features of Jennie’s Taycan are discreet highlights in ‘Paint to Sample’ Meissenblue in the exterior and the interior, as well as a ‘Jennie Ruby Jane’ logo that Jennie created herself.
Painted in a metallic black, the car is named ‘Taycan 4S Cross Turismo for Jennie Ruby Jane’.
The Sonderwunsch model will be presented at the Sonderwunsch Haus with the start of Blackpink’s world tour in Seoul.
Understatement was deliberately chosen for the exterior of the Taycan. Contrasting with the metallic black finish, the 21-inch exclusive design rims are painted in Meissenblue.
The ‘Electric’ lettering on the driver’s door, the model name on the rear and the cloud logos on the B-pillars are all in this special blue from the ‘Paint to Sample’ programme.
The front door entry guards carry illuminated ‘Jennie Ruby Jane’ lettering, with her nickname ‘NiNi’ seen in the rear doors.
In accordance with Jennie’s wishes, the Porsche typography of the current 911 generation (Type 992) was used. The logo projector in the front doors projects the clouds onto the ground beside the car.
The name of the artist and ‘Sonderwunsch’ appear on the wheel hub covers.
In the interior, the combination of Black, Crayon and Meissenblue creates an elegant ambience. Only the seats and the top part of the dashboard are in Crayon.
Meissenblue accents the door panel trim, the borders of the air vents, the cup holders and the top centre marking of the steering wheel rim. The headrests are adorned with the clouds designed by Jennie. A special indoor car cover was also created with this personal touch.
