Some of you might be surprised, but a lot of car manufacturers find it harder to market and sell a $15,000 small, economical car rather than a $150,000 luxurious supercar which people stand in lines, and sometimes for months, in order to get one. More than that, some supercars, which are manufactured in limited numbers, get to be sold before even marketing them.
In the year 2000 there were a handful numbers of car manufacturers who competed in the super sports cars segment. In 2010, this number doubled and is growing very rapidly.
In today’s economy, the rich are getting richer and the world is witnessing more billionaires, not only in the US or Europe or the Gulf states, but also in other parts of the world. What was not imaginable two decades ago is now reality. An example of this is the crazy demand for supercars in Beijing and Shanghai and Moscow and other cities around the globe. This made a lot of supercar manufacturers try to get their own slice of the cake.
In 2013, Ferrari made a profit of 340 Million USD, which is 5.4% more than 2012. This profit is 27% of the total FIAT profit despite Ferrari’s sale of only 7,000 cars compared to the 4.4 million cars that FIAT sold.
Volkswagen, which is famous for its Golf and Passat models, owns the iconic Bugatti supercar manufacturer that sells cars for more than 3 million USD. Also from the VW group is the upcoming Audi R8 that is expected to be around $300,000 and has been already booked by 1000 customers before start of production.McLaren Automotive made its first profitable year in 2013 despite only being in the supercar market for not more than 4 years, and with a car that has a $275,000 price tag (MP4-12C).
Lamborghini (also belonging to the VW group) lately launched its new Huracan supercar, the successor to the fabled Gallardo, has a price tag of more than 275,000 USD and has already found hundreds of eager owners.
The rapid growth of this market is mainly due to the fact that the supercar of today has become very sophisticated, and very comfortable and easy to drive, with some models even equipped with four seats such as the Ferrari FF, which can be driven to work by a wealthy businessman every day of the week instead of taking it for a spin or show off on weekends only.
On a final note, manufacturers are also introducing Hybrid supercars (Ferrari LaFerrari, Porsche 918 Spyder and McLaren P1) in order to attract environmental enthusiasts who like to own a friendly green supercar.
