To outsiders, exotic automakers like Porsche and Lamborghini look mostly the same. Never mind that they’re both part of the Volkswagen Group. They both produce and sell high-end cars (and crossovers) capable of immense performance, and which most of us will never be able to afford.
But those of us in the know are well aware that there’s a huge difference between Porsches and Lamborghinis – or Ferraris, McLarens, or Aston Martins for that matter. Not just in terms of price, but in terms of quantity.
Automakers around the world are now reporting their figures for the first quarter of this year. And Porsche had a record start to the year. In fact, it sold some 63,500 vehicles in just the past three months. And that’s a whole lot more than Lamborghini does.
The Italian marque sold 3,815 of its supercars around the world in 2017. That represented a new high-water marque for the House of the Raging Bull. But it still amounts to just one sixteenth of the sales Porsche achieved in the past three months alone.
Of course, most of that disparity comes down to hot-selling crossovers like the Macan and Cayenne. (Porsche sold over 23,000 Macans alone this past quarter.) And Lamborghini is following that model with the introduction of the Urus, which promises to double its production and sales capacity in the coming years. But even when Sant’Agata reaches 7,000 units worldwide, it still won’t equal the 7,700 cars that Porsche sold just in Germany this past quarter.
Even Porsche’s flagship sports car range, the 911, dramatically outsells the combined tally of Huracans and Aventadors. In the first three months of this year, Porsche sold 9,600 examples of the 911 – more than two and a half times the number of supercars that Lamborghini sells all year. If that doesn’t put the difference between Porsche and Lamborghini into perspective, we don’t know what will.