World’s rich floor it in post-pandemic luxury car rush

World’s rich floor it in post-pandemic luxury car rush

PARIS: The global rebound from the coronavirus pandemic is revving luxury carmakers' sales to never-before-seen heights, as order books at the likes of Lamborghini, Ferrari and Rolls-Royce burst with demand from the world's wealthy. Just like regular earners around the world, the richest cut back on consumption during 2020, with "double-digit“ falls in sales for makers of the most coveted cars, says Felipe Munoz of market research firm Jato Dynamics.

But "customers for these cars were not as exposed as others“ to the crisis' financial fallout, he adds. For the wealthy, "most of the problem was that they couldn't get out of their houses,“ Munoz says. "They postponed their purchases.“ The rebound for exclusive cars was already underway in the final quarter of 2020 as they reached for their platinum credit cards again, cushioning the pandemic blow by comparison to mass-market manufacturers. Annual sales last year at Volkswagen-owned Lamborghini sped past their 2019 record to 7,430 vehicles, driven by the Italian manufacturer's hefty Urus SUV clocking in at around 200,000 euros ($220,000 in the US).

Closed factories meant sales at Ferrari tumbled 10 percent last year, to 9,119. But bosses say the black-horse brand now has an "order book at record levels“,