Something of a surprise to those of us that have been tracking Porsche’s sales, PCNA actually sold fewer cars in August of 2018 than they did in the same period of 2017. This logs the first sales downturn of the year, following seven months of year-on-year growth. Even with the minor downtick in sales performance, Porsche Cars North America is still outpacing 2017 in year-to-date sales, meaning this could be another record-breaking year for the company.
The primary reason for the downturn in sales, which is likely to continue through September, is the utter lack of availability on Cayenne models. With the new model rolling out to dealers in October of this year, the company’s big-seller SUV is all but sold out across the country, making sales difficult to come by. Only 143 Cayenne were sold this month, while more than six times as many were sold in August of 2018. Meanwhile, despite the next-generation Macan having already been announced, sales of the small Porsche trucklet have only continued to grow, accounting for more than 50% of PCNA’s sales in August. I’m not positive, but I think this might be the first time the Macan has reached over the 50% barrier. Porsche’s lux sedan Panamera sales increased by just three units over August of 2017. All other models experienced significant sales losses year-on-year.
Porsche Approved CPO sales in the U.S. increased by 31.1% to 2108 units. When taking CPO unit sales into account, a full 1/3rd of U.S. Porsche dealer efforts are toward selling used cars.