how many luxury cars are there?
how many luxury cars are there?
For a growing class of customers, even the highest priced products don't have enough outside appeal if they come from a high-volume car manufacturer. "BMW has a wide range, but some people will find that it is not differentiated enough," says Xavier musket, head of auto practice at the Boston Consulting Group. Rolls-Royce, a brand owned by BMW, could send a fraction of his father's business, but corporate rolls is also there to receive those who feel compelled to operate from a simple 7 Series sedan. Meanwhile, much of the spoils of the ultra-luxury sales boom are being split between Fiat Chrysler, which owns Ferrari and Maserati, and Volkswagen, which has Bentley, Lamborghini, Porsche and in its high-end garage.
Maserati Quattroporte
Maserati Quattroporte, who went to the road in 2013, has helped the brand become a high volume player. Photographer: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg
The boom in business, for the most part, comes from a simple relationship between supply and demand: Growing ranks of wealthy consumers want more opulent toys. At the end of last year, around 211,000 people had a net value of at least $30 million of a 13 percent increase from 2011, according to UBS and the X-wealth research firm. For a person a value of $30 million, buying a car for a mere $100.000, without is a weight decision. It is similar to the average American consumer with net worth of $45,000 swing movements per lot of used cars and releasing $1.350 in a trite Pontiac Aztek.
If a car executive expands the target market to those worth at least $10 million, the population of potential customers hits almost 700,000. "The number of people can enjoy a luxury product is not a limiting factor," says Christophe Georges, Bentley's director of marketing and product strategy. "The market has the potential to go far beyond what it is today."
As the cake has grown, car manufacturers have done a better job of tracing the new ultra-rich and convincing them to splurge on a carbon fiber space-age wedge or a wooden-paneled den on wheels. "It's been a pretty nice growth story," says BCG musket. "A large part of the growth has been generated by the new geographies."
China, in particular, has been conducive to rich rides. Part of the country's ultra-luxury car cake has increased from 12 percent to 27 percent over the past five years, according to IHS. For Maserati and Rolls-Royce, China is now a larger market than all of Europe. Growth is also spreading across the rest of Asia and the Middle East and Africa, regions in which more people are fencing by overcoming the $30 billion mark faster than anywhere else, according to UBS and X-wealth.
It is not surprising that the first-line dealers are following the money. Last year, for example, Rolls-Royce opened showrooms in both Cambodia and Vietnam. "Even if it's only 20 or 30 millionaires nationwide, these guys are thinking, ' Maybe I should start buying things to flaunt my wealth a little '," says Ian Fletcher, IHS Automotive analyst.
Automobile companies are also doing a better job of segmenting prices, the practice of separating customers by willingness to pay. For thousands of elite consumers, there is not much difference between the spending of $300,000 inhabitants in a car and $ S 1.2 million in a rarefied version of the same kind of car. This explains the recent wave of ultra-Caro sports cars produced in small quantities. Ferrari only made 499 of the Ferrari-Ferraris, the hybrid sports car surprise launched at the 2013 meeting in Geneva. Each one had a price tag above $1 million. Porsche, for its part, only the 918 made of its model 918, a car which began to $840.000. Lamborghini overcame the two, so only three of its 12-cylinder venom model and sell them for $3.9 million each.
Luxury cars that do not aim for the top end of the speedometer, for their part, have focused on offering personalization options. Four out of five Rolls-Royce sold last year so the car manufacturer calls his "measurement process." Coaches can be held with hand-engraved picnic games, embroidered headrests, lamb wool rugs, and light-up bell ornaments. Artisans Rolls-Royce even sew hundreds of diamonds on the roof lining to resemble a night sky not any night, but the pattern of the constellation evident on a specific date.
It's not unusual for this kind of extras to make the price of a rolls above $600,000. "We fulfill our owners ' desire to spend their money in a creative way," says Pastor. "If you make the car totally unique, it's much more valuable to them."
IHS expects the super premium car market to expand by 21 percent over the next two years, car and blue blood manufacturers can fly beyond that target if their plans turn out.
Encouraged by their progress in emerging markets, almost every luxury brand in the business is designing an SUV, a product pragmatism outbreak that high-end brands, once believed to ruin their finely crafted reputation. The same idea of making a Lamborghini vehicle for utility, instead of speed, is as outrageous by some as Bernardin offering it a gut-busting burrito. But the top of the car market is simply yielding to the demand of shoppers looking for bigger, boxier rides made by the brands they already favor.
Porsche has shown how easy it can be to make a lot of SUVs. Greater offer-those of the Cayenne brand: represents 35 percent of the company's U.S. sales in a vehicle, and the addition of a sport utility option has not soured drivers in their sports cars 911. Porsche even doubled down on the SUV last year, deploying a smaller model known as Macan.
"Ultra-premium brands know what their customers want, and they're going to give them," says Fletcher of IHS. "There are a lot of people around the world who are going to buy a Range Rover and come to someone who will double the price of a vehicle only by adding the new paint and other things."
Lamborghini SUV, the Urus, is being put through the steps before reaching showrooms; So, too, it's the Maserati Levante. Rolls-Royce became the last to join the crowd, even though they deigned to use the initials "SUV" in their product announcement last week: the company prefers to call it a "body-high" capable of ' traversing any terrain. '
The Urus, Lamborghini's first SUV.
The Urus, Lamborghini's first SUV. Source: Lamborghini
Bentley seems about to beat his luxury rivals to the market and promises to publicize his road list at some point Bentayga SUV in the third quarter. Once you reach the dealerships at the beginning of 2016, the company expects to sell at least 3,000 SUVs per year. If the traditional Bentley car business is maintained at current levels, that would represent an immediate 30 percent increase in volume.
"Basically, we want to create a new market segment," says Bentley's Georges. "If other people are thinking of doing the same, it just means that our idea isn't so bad, huh?"
What really defines a luxury car?
by Brian Moody
Luxury is for pleasing the senses. From cars to houses, construction of quality, soft leather, thick carpet, open spaces and lots of light are just some of the things that communicate luxury. People can't be deceived into believing that something is true luxury just because of a marketing campaign or the smart mark.
When it comes to cars, it's easy to identify luxury brands. Acura, BMW, Infiniti and Mercedes-Benz are known as luxury brands not because all they do is luxury, but due to most of what they produce is high quality and pleasing to the senses. Cars look and feel good.
However, the same company that builds Mercedes-Benz branded vehicles also builds the micro size intelligent car. It is clear that it is not designed to be a luxury car, but that does not change the fact that Mercedes-Benz is a luxury brand. The company has gained that reputation by consistently producing high quality, good looking cars which have attractive features. The same can be said of Audi, Lexus and others. Remove Audi A6 rings from one or three-pointed star of an E-class and still have a luxury car.
What about the opposite side of the same coin? Can a company like Kia, mainly known for economy cars, build a luxury car? You could say no if your definition of luxury is mainly based on the brand. But, if you define such attractive luxury, of high quality and pleasing to the senses, then yes, Kia can build a luxury car. In fact, you've got it. Recently, Kia Motors presented the completely new Cadenza sedan. Accelerates with authority, combines tight driving with a smooth road trip like silk, the cabin remains silent, no matter what kind of road they are doing and is visually appealing both inside and out. It also comes standard with many luxury features such as leather seats with heating and navigation.
There are other examples of luxury cars that are considered to be the brands are not luxury. I would say the Equus of Hyundai and Hyundai Genesis are luxury cars. In addition, the 2014 Chevy Impala LTZ 2014 Honda Odyssey touring Elite and 2013 Toyota Avalon Limited come and feel like luxury cars when you choose the top of the cutting line and add the available options. On seat basis, the Honda Odyssey is practical, but not luxury. However, if you opt for the touring Elite version, you will get soft leather, electric side doors, a large number of applications connected thanks to the HondaLink software, LED taillights, an adjustable parking rear view camera and a built-in vacuum system. Yes, the vacuum is built into the car. There is a certain luxury in that level of comfort.
The idea that you can only get a luxury car from a luxury brand can be specifically American. Brands such as Acura, Infiniti and Lexus were invented to sell Honda luxury, Nissan and Toyota to Americans who probably don't think of the Honda, Nissan and Toyota as luxury cars. However, in places like Korea and Japan, wealthy car buyers have no problem spending serious money on big, powerful and well-equipped cars like the Nissan Cedric or Toyota Crown Majesta. If you can accept that a brand can sell everything from a friendly sipping fuel budget all the way to a high performance coupƩ or luxury sedan (like Chevrolet), you could change the way you go to buy a new car.
If you're still thinking of luxury it means making a great impression by introducing yourself to your high school meeting in a lent Jaguar like Romy and Michelle, you're mistaken. Today, it's about quality, comfort, good looks and visually pleasing design. Modern luxury pay attention to the details, but in the end you don't care what logo is on the trunk.
And you, do you think a real luxury car can only come from a luxury brand?