Eight. That’s how many 718s Porsche delivered in the U.S. last quarter. Not eight hundred. Eight. A year earlier, the same quarter moved 1,719 of them. That near-total disappearance — a roughly 99.5% decline driven by the end of gasoline-718 production in October 2025 — accounts for the bulk of Porsche’s 12.9% U.S. sales drop in Q3 2026. The brand delivered 16,026 vehicles in the quarter, down from 18,403. The math isn’t complicated once you know where to look.
The 718 Didn’t Crash — It Was Retired
The 718’s vanishing act distorts the headline numbers in ways that deserve a model-by-model read.
Porsche Cars North America described the quarterly result as “in line with expectations,” and on the 718, that framing holds. Production ended; deliveries all but stopped — eight units reached customers in a quarter that once moved nearly 1,700. Year-to-date, 718 deliveries fell from 5,398 to just 252.
The broader picture tells a more varied story:
- Total U.S. deliveries reached 16,026 in Q3 (down 12.9%) and 49,038 through nine months (down 14.1%), with the 718’s roughly 5,100-unit year-over-year shortfall accounting for a substantial share of that gap.
- The 911 delivered the clearest counterpoint: year-to-date U.S. deliveries rose 32.8% to 11,778 units.
- The Cayenne was Porsche’s top-selling U.S. model in the quarter, with strong demand cited by the company.
Not every nameplate is pointing the same direction.
The Harder Question Is the Taycan
The 718’s exit is an easy explanation; the Taycan’s decline is a more uncomfortable one.
The 718 story is clean. The Taycan story is not. A 65.4% quarterly drop — year-to-date down 55.6% to 1,616 units — suggests demand softness that portfolio shuffling cannot fully explain. Like a restaurant blaming the health inspector for food nobody ordered, that decline stands apart from any production-halt narrative. The Macan adds another layer: combustion-engined Macan production ended in summer 2026, and global deliveries fell 21% through nine months. Two models can reasonably claim transition cover. A third points to questions about Porsche’s EV strategy that a quarterly press release does not answer.
What comes next is the electric 718, reportedly planned for an 800-volt platform and expected to arrive in 2027, according to current industry reporting — though Porsche has not formally confirmed those details. It will need to persuade buyers who prized the outgoing car’s lightweight balance and combustion character to trust a battery-powered replacement — a conversion complicated by real concerns around range, weight penalty, and charging experience. Whether that argument lands in the U.S. market is the number worth watching.
