718 production end is now official

[blueline]

The planned October end date had been mentioned late last year but, since hope springs eternal, the persistent rumors remained that rest-of-world sales of the wonderful Boxsters and Caymans might continue for a bit longer. Sadly, that is not going to be the case.

October is it. It's official per Porsche. From last night's e-Brake News in a linked Motor1.com article:

"Porsche Cars North America’s head of Product Communications, Frank Wiesmann, told us that the fourth-generation Boxster and Cayman (982 series) have entered their final months of production. The last units are scheduled to be built in October."

https://www.motor1.com/news/760364/pors ... roduction/

How sad. Farewell fond 718s. We'll always love ya!!!!

2018-porsche-718-boxster-gts-first-drive.webp (84.66 KiB) Viewed 471 times

[Tom]

Very sad. I worry I missed out on a 4.0 GTS, one of my favorite all-around sports cars from Porsche -- nearly 2 minutes faster around the ring than a Ferrari Testarossa, without any of the fuss.

[P_Coastal]

Be very curious what drove that decision precisely. Production limitations, strategy, home market non-conformity…

[blueline]

Be very curious what drove that decision precisely. Production limitations, strategy, home market non-conformity…

In Europe where 718 sales ended last year, it was driven by the non-conformity of the aging platform's inability to meet new cybersecurity regulations put in place by the EU. (A bit heavy-handed imo, but not unexpected from regulation-heavy bureaucrats in Brussels.)

Beyond that, I think Porsche decided building them past this coming October for the rest of the world was not feasible for a variety of reasons, many of which are financial and tech-driven, along with the need to quickly pivot from their previously stated paths.

This SSO Report analysis from yesterday outlines a few of the internal and structural challenges Porsche is facing.

https://ssoreport.com/thoughts-may-2025

A couple of quotes from the piece:

"The great Porsche purge has continued to pick up steam in the last few months. Porsche CEO Oliver Blume has been cleaning out his Executive Board at a pace that would impress even Valdimir Putin or Xi Jinping. So far, he has replaced 4 of the 7 Board Members and I would not be at all surprised if there is still one more (Albrecht Reimold – head of Production and Logistics) to follow."

"The cracks have been showing in Porsche’s results for over a year now. While Blume was very slow to react initially, he has certainly wasted no time cleaning house (and with it assigning blame) this year. Whether or not the new team can get things back on track, time will tell, but at a minimum, in the world of corporate Machiavellism, Blume has bought himself another couple of years."

[WillyDaP]

Tough to hear when the EV Cayman/Boxster have been delayed and considering there is no real change in US regs keeping the Plant moving when Porsche has suffered losses of production ( due to Sales ) in the Taycan area is a bit baffling. Who knows , maybe with all the changes on the Board there could be a surge of common sense prevail -- it would not be the first time with an Auto Manufacturer. Even building through the end of the year would make sense , but shutting down Osnabruck seemed like strange situation when it could have continued pumping out Porsche and not affecting EV Porsche in Zuffenhausen. I always love how all Porsche promotional data states Porsches were all built in Zuffenhausen , yet there are plenty of us with the Osnabruck 718s. Maybe the cars built there will be consider rarer and worth more money in the future, haha!

[Arne2]

718 sales numbers are and have always been small, far less than 911 numbers (and way less than Macan). It is probably not cost effective to continue making them in even smaller numbers for mostly North America (since many other markets are following the EU regs). Porsche sales tanking in China were the final nail.