Ferrari restarts orders for first four-door sports car

FERRARI was boosted after it reopened orders for its first ever four-door following “unprecedented demand”.

The £313,000 Purosangue, meaning “thoroughbred”, is Ferrari’s attempt to appeal to wealthy drivers who prefer roomier, Suv-style sports cars. The two-ton vehicle is powered by a 6.5-litre V12 engine and has 725 horsepower.

It follows Lamborghini and Aston Martin into the four-door, four-seater market – with the Urus and DBX respectively. In spite of higher prices, top-end sports car makers have enjoyed high demand and customers are willing to spend on more custom designs, helping manufacturers to record sales.

Ferrari said shipments had risen 10pc to 3,567 cars in the first three months of the year, while revenue grew 20pc. Increased sales of its more expensive models helped to boost profits by a quarter to €385m (£337m).

Benedetto Vigna, the Italian company’s chief executive, said: “Our order book already extends into 2025 with an award-winning product portfolio. We have decided to reopen orders for the Purosangue, suspended due to an initial unprecedented demand.”

The company is “on track” with plans to electrify its fleet, he added. In January, it emerged that Ferrari was developing a way of keeping its signature engine roar as it moved away from petrol towards electric-powered models.

Since governments began banning new petrol car sales, carmakers have been fretting over how to maintain the personality of their creations, including the handling and sound.

While manufacturers are likely to embrace the silence of an electric engine as a selling point, cars built by Ferrari and its peers are prized for the excitement generated by the sound.

While it could record an existing engine and play it back through speakers, Ferrari wants a genuine sound that harnesses the moving parts of its electric cars, according to a patent it filed this year in the US. Ferrari is a luxury brand, earning the kind of share price valuations normally reserved for fashion houses.

Its shares have gained fivefold since Ferrari listed as a separate entity in 2015, when it was spun out of Fiat, which had owned at least half of the brand since 1969. Ferrari is now worth more than €51bn, beating the €46bn valuation of Stellantis, which owns its former owner Fiat and Chrysler, Peugeot, Maserati and Vauxhall.