Porsche sales drop, quits WEC and Le Mans

Another undramatic week for Porsche as motorsport plan altered and EV sales remain modest

By Matt Bird / Thursday, 9 October 2025 / Loading comments

Fresh from its pledge to continue with combustion, Porsche has issued its sales figures for the year so far. As is so often the case right now, with so much uncertainty and apprehension around the industry and the future, they make for interesting reading. Porsche itself reckons that it’s achieved ‘robust delivery figures despite a challenging environment’. ‘Challenging’ definitely feels like it’s doing a lot of the heavy lifting in that sentence.

The headline number is 212,059, the number of Porsches sold globally from January 1st this year until September 30th. If six per cent down on 2024’s equivalent (226,026), it still looks impressive for a company that only sells sports and luxury cars. Market share increased for five of the six model lines. The more interesting trends are in individual market and model fluctuations; the China situation remains tricky, for example, with 26 per cent fewer cars sold in the first three quarters of this year against 2024 (32,195 compared to 43,280).

Domestic sales dropped as well, with 22,492 Porsches sold in Germany - or 16 per cent less than the year before. Porsche attributes that (and a small drop in the rest of Europe) ‘partly due to a strong period the previous year with catch-up effects from 2023 and limited model availability in the 718 and Macan combustion-engine models due to EU cybersecurity regulations.’ Gains were modest: five per cent more cars in North America, three per cent up in Overseas and Emerging Markets, although the latter achieved a new best return of 43,090 deliveries. Together they account for just under half of the total sales.

Electrification is the big story as far as sales specifics go. Global Macan sales were up 18 per cent to 64,783, making it the best seller again, with just over half of those (36,250) being the new Electric version; remember the old combustion car is still going outside the EU, and going strong by all accounts. The Taycan was down 10 per cent globally, at 12,641 units, but more than a third of Porsches now sold (35.2 per cent) count as electrified (so including hybrids as well), which is up 12.8 percentage points on 2024. In Europe, the majority of Porsches sold - 56 per cent - are electrified.

For the 911 and the 718 (remember those!), the latter suffered for EU cybersecurity regs that are seeing production wind up, with sales down 15 per cent. The rear-engined icon is still delivering solid numbers: 37,806 global units might be down five per cent, but when every 992 costs at least £100,000 that can hardly be seen as a bad return. Especially with demand for Sonderwunsch and Exclusive Manufaktur builds, which will add even more to the RRP, is said to be ‘continuously growing’.

Matthias Becker, Porsche’s board member for sales and marketing, said: “We have made forward-looking product decisions in recent weeks. In doing so, we’re responding to the diverse needs of customers worldwide and the slowing of the uptake of electric mobility, allowing us to be more flexible in the years to come. We expect the market environment to remain challenging in the future. More than ever, we’re focusing on managing demand and supply in line with our ‘value over volume’ strategy.”

That challenging market is influencing more than just Porsche’s road car side, as cuts are coming for motorsport. Porsche Penske Motorsport will no longer compete in the World Endurance Championship after the end of the 2025 season; while the 963 remains eligible for WEC competition in private hands (with outfits like 2023 and 2024 Teams champions Hertz Team Jota), there will be no factory effort. It will maintain a presence in the North American IMSA series, ‘underlining the importance of the North American market and endurance racing for the brand.’

Porsche will maintain its Formula E participation as well, with a fourth-generation 99X Electric coming for the 2026/27 season, enabling it ‘to achieve an even steeper learning curve for the all-electric production vehicles.’ Customer racing (think of all the Carrera Cup and GT4 Clubsport cars) continues unaltered. “We use motorsport as a development platform for future technology and to illustrate the potential of our sports cars,” said Thomas Laudenbach, Porsche Motorsport VP. “With the Porsche 963 in the North American IMSA series and the Porsche 99X Electric in the Formula E World Championship, we want to continue to fight for overall victories in the future. That is our tradition and our focus.”