luxury cars saw record sales. 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. Just like regular earners around the world, the richest cut back on consumption during 2020, with “double-digit” falls in sales for makers of the most coveted cars, said Felipe Munoz of market research firm Jato Dynamics.
However, he went on to say that “customers for these cars were not as exposed as others” to the financial consequences of pandemic restrictions. Munoz stated that the wealthy’s “major problem was that they couldn’t get out of their houses.” “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.
Annual sales last year at Volkswagen-owned Lamborghini sped past their 2019 record to 7,430 vehicles, driven by the Italian manufacturer’s hefty Urus SUV that clocks in at around 200,000 euros ($243,000). 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 appreciate life” “The luxury market still has very specific rules and customers,” Deloitte car industry analyst Guillaume Crunelle says.
“Behavior is much more linked to personal circumstances and how their wealth is developing 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). Nevertheless, the BMW subsidiary’s boss also sees the aftereffects of the pandemic in people’s buying patterns.
“Quite a lot of our clients said that COVID-19 taught them that life can easily end tomorrow and now is (the) time to enjoy your life.”
The historic British brand introduced the Boat Tail, a model inspired by yachts, this week. Only three of the boats have been produced to date, and the price has not been disclosed. According to Muller-Otvos, the new vehicle is “much more refined” than the company’s previous custom-built Sweptail, which cost around $13 million.
