The Porsche 918 Spyder has sold out – and the firm’s head of research and development, Wolfgang Hatz, has confirmed that there will be a successor to the petrol-electric hybrid hypercar.
Hatz revealed at the LA motor show that all 918 examples of the 918 Spyder now have confirmed customers, with Porsche opening a waiting list in case any drop out while they wait for their car to be built. Prices for the 918 Spyder started at £650,000.
“I was always convinced we’d sell out, and what is most satisfying is that the sales have accelerated as reviews confirmed the car is everything we promised it would be,” said Hatz.
“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.”
The last 918 was sold in November. Of the 918 examples, 297 were sold to customers in the USA, with Germany and China each taking around 100 orders.
Hatz said the know-how learned while developing the 918 would serve Porsche well in future years, and added that the car had now set a blueprint for investing in pioneering technology that the firm would follow in the future.
“Will we build a successor to the 918? Yes,” said Hatz. “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 learnt 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.”
The Porsche 918 was launched at the same time as the LaFerrari and McLaren P1 hypercars. All 499 examples of LaFerrari sold out immediately, while all 375 McLaren P1s sold out a few months after the car’s launch.
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