15.9.11

This article was written by John Reed and first appeared on
the FT Website

Ferrari’s chairman said the Italian sports car brand was heading for record sales this year – further confirmation that top-end cars are proving impervious to the turmoil in world markets.

Luca di Montezemolo said Ferrari, whose expensive cars command a waiting list, was “not fighting for sales numbers”. However, he said, the brand was heading for a record this year, thanks to strong performance in the US, China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

“Our goal is to finish this year with 7,000 cars – it means better than last year, and a historic record for Ferrari,” Mr di Montezemolo told the Financial Times at the Frankfurt auto show. Last year the Italian brand, which is owned by Fiat, sold about 6,500 cars.

“We haven’t yet seen problems on the market,” Mr di Montezemolo said of the debt crisis rocking the eurozone and US, which has caused mass market carmakers General Motors and PSA Peugeot Citroën to trim some production in Europe.
Ferrari does not want to exceed 7,000 cars a year so it could “maintain exclusivity” and keep better control of the market for its used cars, Ferrari’s chairman said.

Mr di Montezemolo said the carmaker, which opened a theme park in Abu Dhabi last year, was studying the possibility of opening another one in either the US or Asia – China, Korea or Hong Kong. “We are receiving proposals, but we aren’t under pressure,” he said. “We have to give good growth to Abu Dhabi.”

Ferrari, unusually among carmakers, generates about a fifth of its revenue from merchandising and licensing agreements with other companies. It has licensing deals with Puma, Mattel and Logo, and operates 55 brand stores around the world.
Mr di Montezemolo made the comments as Ferrari unveiled its new 458 Spider model at the Frankfurt auto show.
Sales of premium cars are still buoyant, and the heads of other companies that manufacture them have mostly presented bullish forecasts for the market, largely due to strong demand for their products in China.

Ferrari’s cars are some of the industry’s most expensive, and sit in a “high-luxury” segment also occupied by Rolls-Royce that fared relatively well after the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008 caused a global sales slump in the car industry.

Rival sports car producer Lotus says that it has had 114 orders for China of the Evora GTE, an limited-edition car with a lightweight body that it will sell for more than £100,000. The carmaker, based in Hethel, Norfolk, had planned to sell 25 of the cars. It is now showing the car in Frankfurt to gauge the European response. “It shows that the Lotus brand is able to sell more expensive cars,” Dany Bahar, the carmaker’s chief executive, told the FT in Frankfurt.