Sedan-dominating sales of SUVs are unstoppable

Methinks the SUV’s complete conquest of the sedan is nigh. Oh, there are a few holdouts, notably Ferrari and McLaren, resisting the lure of filthy (as in muddy) lucre, but next year sometime — Italian automakers are notoriously vague about precise launch dates — Lamborghini will introduce its Urus “super” SUV.

For those not following the luxury marketplace closely, that means Bentley (Bentayga), Maserati (Levante) and even Rolls-Royce (whose SUV is codenamed Cullinan) have either started selling or are about to start selling some form of faux-by-faux. Indeed, of the two renegades, only McLaren can be relied on to never succumb to the lure of SUV profits, with Ferrari’s chief executive, Sergio Marchionne, long accused of a willingness to dilute the famed brand.

That’s why Stefano Domenicali, Lamborghini’s new chief executive, is adamant that, a) the Sant’Agata Bolognese company will never sell more than 3,500 “supersports” cars a year and, b) therefore the only way to increase profitability is through the introduction of the new Urus (the company just enjoyed record sales of 3,457 cars last year, including 210 in Canada, and gross revenue of almost $1 billion). Indeed, Domenicali says the “credibility” restricting the supply of its supercars will give Lamborghini “permission” among its loyalist fan base to capitalize on the SUV market.

Of course, this isn’t the first time Lambo has built an SUV; the company’s LM002 is long entrenched in automotive folklore. But that ground-pounder (literally, because it was powered by a Countach-derived V-12 and weighed 2,700 kilograms) did not line company coffers. Lamborghini produced only 301 between 1986 and 1993, and the profit margins were said to be thin.

So that “permission” to build a (profitable) SUV is too enticing to pass up. By Domenicali’s own reckoning, Urus sales will, in just two years, equal the 3,500 units a year that it took the company’s supercars 54 years to reach. Considering that each of those future SUVs will cost in the neighbourhood of US$200,000, the lure of that “credibility” is unmistakable.

Sport utes of every price and size are where the market is heading, the consuming public seeming not to care that SUVs are less efficient, less economical and, sometimes, not even as well-developed as their sedan counterparts.

The industry’s hottest “premium” subcompact SUVs, as imagined by BMW, MercedesBenz, Audi, Lexus and Infiniti, are a compromised lot that are either cheap (Mercedes’ GLA), old (Audi’s Q3), underwhelming (BMW’s minivan-like X1 and Lexus’s buzzy hybrid NX 300h) or expedient (Infiniti’s QX30 is simply a GLA in admittedly much nicer clothes). In virtually every case, the automaker’s comparable sedans are dynamically superior, but despite the compromises, dealers can’t keep the SUVs on the showroom floor.

Sales are booming. Subcompact SUVs are up 20 per cent, compact SUVs outsold compact sedans last year (375,386 to 369,757) and fullsized SUVs (Ford’s Expedition, the Chevrolet Suburban and the Dodge Durango leading the pack) are up 53 per cent.

The lure of the SUV is ostensibly its utility, which, now that allwheel drive is available in so many sedans, comes down to cargo capacity. In other comparisons, consumers pay a steep price for their “command” driving position.

Fuel economy is the most obvious reason. Cars of the same size always get better fuel economy. An Audi A4 2.0 TFSI is rated at 8.8 L/100 km by Natural Resources Canada; the company’s Q3, despite having less horsepower, is rated at 10.3 L/100 km.

If the current pace holds up, the four-door sedan could, in a very short time, be as reviled as the station wagon. I wonder what a Ferrari sport brute might look like?