Porsche 918’s arriving at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson airport on December 10, 2014

Were you hoping Santa would leave a Porsche 918 Spyder under the Christmas tree for you this year? Looks like you’re going to be disappointed. Wolfgang Hatz, Porsche’s head of research and development, tells AutoCar that the last 918 was sold in November. Only 918 examples of the $850,000 supercar will ever be manufactured. Of those, 297 are coming to America, with 100 going to Germany and another 100 to China.

“We set out to take a different approach to our rivals, to build a car that was at the extremes of performance and efficiency, and we proved that we could achieve both. Our customers now know that we are ready for whatever the future holds,” says Hatz. Sales accelerated after early reviews confirmed the actual car exceeded all pre-production expectations.

With so few cars being made, naturally there is speculation about whether Porsche will ever build a successor to the mighty 918, which features a V-8 gasoline engine and an electric motor that combine to pump out 887 horsepower and 944 lb-ft of torque. Top speed is listed as 211 mph and acceleration is definitely in the “mind blowing” category.

Says Hatz, “Will we build a successor to the 918? Yes. Not immediately, but not in 20 years’ time either. When you build such a car you learn so much, and this business moves so fast that there are always new challenges to meet. When you develop such cars you also develop a generation of engineers, and I’m confident that all they have learned will feed back into the company for many years. We want to keep that momentum, so for sure there will be a successor to the 918 at some point.”

If you want Santa to bring you one of the cars that will follow the 918 in the future, you better get your order in early.

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Tags: Porsche 918 sold out, Porsche 918 Spyder, Porsche 918 successor

About the Author

Steve Hanley I have been a car nut since the days when articles by John R. Bond and Henry N. Manney, III graced the pages of Road Track. I know every nut, bolt and bullet connector on an MGB from 20 years of ownership. I now drive a 94 Miata for fun and the occasional HPDE track day. If it moves on wheels, I am interested in it. Please follow me on Google + and Twitter.

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