Ferrari pitches new supercar to superrich
Luxury carmaker Ferrari has presold its entire new supercar model, writes Rupert Neate, despite an expected price tag of almost $NZ2 million.
FERRARI has announced a new opentop supercar it describes as ‘‘probably the closest and purest driving experience to Formula 1’’ — and has already presold the whole production run, despite a likely $NZ2 million price tag.
At a private event for devoted customers at its headquarters in Maranello, Italy, the company said it would produce fewer than 500 of the 810hp Monza models, which can reach 100kmh in 2.9 seconds.
Nicolo Boari, Ferrari’s head of product marketing, said the Monza would be ‘‘the most powerful ever in Ferrari history’’, with an 810 horsepower engine. He added that the opencockpit would make the cars ‘‘probably the closest and purest driving experience to the Formula 1’’.
The cars, which will come in oneseat or twoseat versions, are part of the new chief executive’s plans to boost profits by introducing new models — particularly very expensive limitededition supercars.
The latest models are the first in a limited series called Icona, which reference Ferrari’s racing cars of the 1950s.
Louis Camilleri, who took over as Ferrari chief executive from Sergio Marchionne, who died in July, said the company planned to launch an unprecedented 15 new models.
Among them will be Ferrari’s first sports utility vehicles (SUVs) called Purosangue — Italian for thoroughbred. It follows in the footsteps of luxury competitors such as Lamborghini and Aston Martin.
Camilleri said he has set a target of doubling profits to ¤2 billion ($NZ3.5 billion) by 2022. He aims to increase sales to ¤5 billion ($8.8 billion) by 2022, up from ¤3.4 billion
($6 billion) last year.
He said it was an ‘‘ambitious’’ target but the firm was confident it would be able to lift sales as the number of superwealthy people around the world keeps growing. The global population of ultrahighnetworth (UHNW) people, those with more than
$US30 million in assets, increased by 12.9% last year to a record 255,810 people.
All of the Monzas have already been presold to customers who attended the preview party.
The company said it would reveal pricing of the new cars at the Paris Autoshow next month, but experts said they are likely to sell for more than $NZ2 million each. Ferrari’s limitededition LaFerrari Aperta convertible model costs £1.6 million ($NZ3.2 million).
Buyers of the Monzas will receive a racing jumpsuit by highend Italian luxury brand Loro Piana. Luxury leather goods company Berluti will specially produce Monza driving shoes and a leatherclad helmet. — Guardian News and Media