Porsche nearly hits 2018 sales target in 2014. But…

Porsche has revealed that it sold an impressive 189,850 new cars in 2014, just 10,000 short of the target it sets itself for sales in 2018.

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Back in 2011, Porsche declared it would sell 200,000 new cars a year by 2018 – a big jump on the then annual sales of under 100,000 – which seemed like a big ask, or at least a big ask without cheapening the brand.

But here we are, just four years later and still four years off the plan to sell 200,000 cars in a year, and Porsche are reporting sales for 2014 of 189,850 new cars, almost the level predicted for 2018.

So how have Porsche sold so many more cars, so quickly?

Well, the recovery of economies has helped, as too has the rise and rise of sales in China, but arguably the biggest reason is the arrival of the Porsche Macan, which sold 45,000 in its first year on sale.

Now whether that constitutes a sell-out of the brand or not is subjective, but it’s certainly made a big difference and brought new customers to the brand – 75 per cent of Macan buyers are new to Porsche.

But if you strip the sales figures for the Macan out of the equation you actually get a fall in sales numbers for 2014 – down from 162,145 in 2013 to 144,849.

Now if you actually take in to consideration that Porsche acknowledges sale of the 911 – 30,000 in 2014 – were higher than in 2013 and that Panamera sales also rose in 2014 by 13 per cent, you do have to ask ‘How far did sales of the Cayenne, Cayman and Boxster fall in 2014?’.

Whatever the fall was, the Macan more than made up for it though, with the US the biggest Porsche market with 47,00 sales, China on almost the same, Germany on 24,000 and Europe on 61,000.

And if the (we assume rather profitable) Macan sales makes Porsche more profitable, does it matter that Boxster, Cayman and Cayenne sales seem to be falling?