As the world continues to recover from the coronavirus pandemic, leading luxury car manufacturers such as Lamborghini, Ferrari, and Rolls-Royce have been experiencing an unprecedented demand for their supercars. According to market research firm Jato Dynamics’ Felipe Munoz, the richest people worldwide will cut back on their consumption in 2020, with “double-digit” sales declines for manufacturers of the most coveted automobiles. But “customers for these cars were not as exposed as others” to the financial fallout of pandemic restrictions, he added.
For the wealthy, “their major problem was that they couldn’t get out of their houses,” Munoz said. “They postponed their purchases.”
The rebound for exclusive cars was already underway in the final quarter of 2020 as they reached for their platinum credit cards again, cushioning the blow of pandemic restrictions by comparison to mass-market manufacturers.
But bosses say the black-horse brand now has an “order book at record levels,” powered by the 450,000-euro SF90 Stradale – the carmaker’s first plug-in hybrid – as well as the windscreen-free two-seater Monza, believed to cost around 1.7 million euros.
Ferrari hopes to top the 10,000-unit mark next year when it becomes the final luxury producer to offer an SUV with the Purosangue.
‘Time to enjoy life’
Guillaume Crunelle, an analyst in the automobile industry with Deloitte, says, “The luxury market still has very specific rules and customers.” “Behavior is much more linked to personal situations, how their wealth is developing, rather than market trends.”
“There is quite some money around to be spent” after a year of reduced consumption, Rolls-Royce CEO Torsten Muller-Otvos told Agence France-Presse (AFP). But the boss of the BMW subsidiary also sees the pandemic’s effects on people’s buying habits. “A lot of our clients said that COVID-19 taught them that life is short and that now is the time to enjoy it.” This week, the historic British brand launched a yacht-inspired model, the Boat Tail, of which it has so far built just three units – and won’t reveal the price.
Muller-Otvos says that the new car is “much more refined” than its last custom-built Sweptail, which cost in the region of $13 million.