First-timers drive Ferrari Australia to annual sales record

The record performance was emblematic of a year in which an array of ultra high-end car brands had big sales. Customers are flush with business confidence, and yielding returns from the strong property market — the flipside to our expensive housing.

According to VFACTS figures released this week, Ferrari sold 167 vehicles in 2015 — up from 113 the year before. This is a growing chunk of Ferrari’s global production cap of 7000 units (which is set to grow soon). 

Around 60 per cent of these were new Ferrari buyers, which is among the highest penetrations of new buyers in the western world. This is being driven largely by the ‘softer’ California T. Most of these buyers also have something such as a Range Rover/Porsche Cayenne, and a Mercedes-Benz S-Class, in their garage.

Demand for the new 488 GTB and 488 Spider is running off the charts, with a waiting list out past two years — one the company admits is too high. Likewise, demand for the F12 Berlinetta and FF is running hot.

Ferrari’s achievement echoes the 2015 performances of diverse brands such as Aston Martin (130 units, up 21.5 per cent), Bentley (158, up 17 per cent), Lamborghini (84, up 211.1 per cent), Maserati (519, up 29.4 per cent) and McLaren (36, up 38.5 per cent). Porsche also had a bumper year with 4090 units, up 45.4 per cent.

Sales in the Sports > $200K class grew a whopping 17.3 per cent in 2015.

Speaking with CarAdvice today, Ferrari Australasia CEO Herbert Appleroth said the company’s “stellar” year was a few years in the making, given Ferrari took its local distributorship in-house (and away from the independent European Automotive Imports) in May 2013.

Appleroth interestingly cites a “Ferrari-to-house pricing index”, noting that homes have gone through the roof, with a Sydney average home price of around $1 million, while an average Ferrari costs about $500K, making it relatively much more obtainable.

The biggest challenge, he said, was to secure a sufficient share of global output to satisfy customers who had cars on order — something that would require our relative share of production to grow. That’s why the 60 per cent conquest figure is so relevant.

It’s worth noting that the Ferrari Australasia order intake is also running at an all-time high, with much more cars ordered than the company can possibly deliver.

To support this, the company’s five-strong dealer network is in the midst of a wholesale makeover. Melbourne was just revamped, a new Brisbane site recently opened, the Sydney and Adelaide site updates are soon to begin, while a new Perth site is also imminent.

Ferrari Australasia is also running four-times more client track days than its predecessor.

The growth in luxury brands in 2015