Premium brands continue to roll out one model after another as fast as they can. In the past year alone, Porsche has revealed its brand-new 911 in four versions (with more still to follow), Bentley the Continental GTC open-top and Ferrari, its fastest model ever, to name but a few.
Moreover, the battle at the hypercar segment is heating up as Ferrari is readying its all-new Enzo replacement, Porsche the 918 Spyder and McLaren just a few days ago revealed its own weapon, the P1.
Surely then, with the rich of this world getting richer, those nameplates should be not affected by the economic crisis that rages in Europe and has hit mainstream car sales, seriously hurting companies like Fiat and Peugeot.
Reality appears to be a bit different, though; all luxury carmakers are getting ready for a slowdown in their European sales for 2013 as demand for cars costing more than €100,000 (US$128,000) is expected to slow down.
“We have a very volatile product,” Lamborghini CEO Stephan Winkelmann told told Bloomberg News during the Paris Auto Show. “Our customers buy this product not because they need mobility, but because they want a dream fulfilled”, he added.
Winkelmann also stressed that it’s not a case of not being able to afford them: “Even if they have the money, if it’s not the right time, they might not buy it.”
What he means is that some people wouldn’t want to be seen driving a sparkling new Aventador in countries like Italy, Spain or Greece, where unemployment has hit record figures.
It’s not that supercar and luxury car makers are about to start closing down their dealerships – they are simply readjusting their sales and investment projections.
Porsche CEO Stephan Muller has already said that 2013 sales could very well be 5 to 10 percent down compared to initial targets, so Stuttgart is holding back on its production and investments in order to maintain its profitability.
“Generally, the global ultra-luxury car market is more resilient than the volume segment, but in extreme crisis it also gets affected”, Credit Suisse Group analyst Arndt Ellinghorst told Bloomberg. “The ultra-luxury carmakers will profit in the next years from growth in the emerging markets, which they started to develop only in the last five years”, he added.
It’s not just Europe’s southern countries that feel the strain: in Germany, unemployment has climbed for the sixth straight month in September.
On the other hand, Ferrari president Luca di Motezemolo said that he expects record sales this year thanks to increased demand in the U.S. and China.
“Our key markets, Germany and the U.K., are doing well; Italy not, of course”, said di Montezemolo. He added that, in order to make up for lost European market sales, the brand must “push” in the U.S., Asia and the Middle East where demand is still strong.
By Andrew Tsaousis
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