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Luxury cars: a restart after the crisis

2021-05-30T10:27:56.729Z


Less affected by the crisis than the rest of the automotive sector, luxury is recovering quickly thanks to the postponement of purchases by its niche customers.


Lamborghinis at 200,000 euros which are snapping up, "

record

"

orders

from Ferrari, Rolls which launches a car with yacht lines at astronomical prices ... Luxury cars quickly recovered from the crisis caused by the Covid-19 .

With their confidential production and their wealthy clientele, "

these brands generally come out of crises unscathed, but there they have posted double-digit sales declines

," explains Felipe Munoz, expert for the firm Jato Dynamics.

Read also: Mercedes S-Class, the boss's favorite car

Wealthy buyers postponed their purchases

However, the situation improved significantly from the last quarter of 2020. “

It was not a problem of money, it was just that buyers were stuck in their homes.

They postponed their purchases,

”emphasizes Felipe Munoz.

Luxury brands have thus weathered the shocks of 2020 better than most generalist brands.

"

Luxury continues to live with very specific codes and clientele

," explains Guillaume Crunelle of the Deloitte firm.

We are dealing with behaviors more linked to personal situations, to the evolution of heritage, than to market trends

”.

"

There is a lot of money ready to be spent,

" Rolls-Royce boss Torsten Muller-Otvos said in an interview with AFP. "

I was impressed by the number of customers who told us that with the Covid, they understood that they could die tomorrow and that it is now that we must enjoy life

".

All of these luxury brands sell a lot in Europe and North America, but mostly saw their sales accelerate in China.

"

It is the first area of ​​wealth accumulation in the world, and the car continues to be an extremely strong social discriminator

", explains Guillaume Crunelle.

"

In China, the economy was not paralyzed for months like in the rest of the world,

" said Felipe Munoz.

"

With more and more millionaires and billionaires each year, this trend is expected to continue

."

Read also: The French still addicted to the car

Brands find new life

Rolls-Royce presented on Thursday a very exclusive model whose rear evokes the lines of a yacht.

Only three units have so far been designed.

"

We never talk about price in agreements with our customers,

" said the boss of Rolls-Royce.

"

But the rumors that (the previous similar model) Sweptail would have cost $ 13 million were pretty close to reality

", knowing that "

the Boat Tail is much more refined

".

At Lamborghini, the huge Urus SUV (around 200,000 euros) has exploded sales since its launch in 2018: 7,430 cars were sold worldwide in 2020, the Volkswagen group brand improving its 2019 record.

Ferrari had seen its sales fall by 10% in 2020, with 9,199 cars sold, due to a temporary shutdown of its factories, and postponed some investments because of the crisis. But the horse reared up again in early 2021, with sales driven by the SF90 Stradale, its first plug-in hybrid sports car, sold for just under 450,000 euros, and the Monza, its two-seater without a windshield estimated at 1.7. million euros. Ferrari now has an "order

book at a record level

", indicated its management in early May. The last luxury brand not to offer an SUV, it hopes to pass the 10,000 sales mark with its “

Purosangue

” scheduled for 2022.

Equally affected in 2020, McLaren is counting on its hybrid supercar, the Artura (230,000 euros) to revive itself. Aston Martin, saved from bankruptcy in early 2020, saw sales pick up in the first quarter of 2021 with its DBX SUV.

Source: lefigaro

All business articles on 2021-05-30

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