Such specially made vehicles carry price premiums of tens of thousand dollars over their standard counterparts.
The Huracàn EVO RWD Coupé costs $213,597, for example; the brand has not announced U.S. pricing for the Sterrato, but European pricing is 263,000 euros ($282,200).
It also offers additional revenue streams that bring in thousands of dollars via such extras as off-road tires, fire extinguisher packages, fog lights, carbon fiber trim lines, roll cages and those aforementioned decals.
Smaller production numbers bolster profit margins because automakers can charge more for a “special” version of a vehicle they already make—a benefit particularly critical for companies considering initial public offerings.
“Limited editions show that [a company like Lamborghini] can match Ferrari’s business model with very lucrative sports car derivatives,” says Michael Dean, senior European automotive analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence.
Ferrari excels at creating demand for its highly specialized, extremely low-production vehicles that cost a lot.
It’s also about showcasing new technology and continuing to build the brand, as well as underpinning the margin—so it’s no accident the vehicle Porsche chose to make into a modern trailfinder also carries the highest profit margins of any vehicle at Volkswagen Group.
Dean ranks the 911 as one of the world’s most profitable cars, with a margin exceeding those of all of Ferrari’s models put together and set to sell more than 40,000 units in 2022, compared with 12,500 Ferraris.
“We envisage a 2.6 billion euro ($2.7 billion) profit contribution from the 911 alone next year, versus 2.4 billion euros for the whole of Ferrari,” says Dean.
What is more, such elite and status-giving vehicles give super fans an excuse to buy another car from a favorite brand, even if they already own several.
“That is what really sets them apart: Think of the flex that you can do with one of these things,” Degen says. “It’s like, ‘Oh, it’s not just good enough to have a Lamborghini Huracàn. I have one that does what a Lamborghini should not do.’”
Porsche and Lamborghini could probably charge more—way more—for special editions than they do now, says Dean: “Only a few brands are capable of selling high-margin, $1 million-plus-priced, limited-edition supercars, and that club includes Aston Martin, Ferrari, Lamborghini and Porsche.”
So far, so good. In October, Porsche reported a 41 percent leap in operating profit to more than $5 billion for the first nine months of 2022.
The automaker predicted a strong 2023, thanks to its ability to raise its sales prices even higher.
Over the same period, Lamborghini announced that it, too, had seen significant increases in the first nine months, with operating profit up 69 percent, to $612 million.
The increase in profitability was driven largely by growth in average revenue per car, thanks to the product mix and increased customization, the automaker said.
Still, not every manufacturer wants in on the off-road fun. During an earnings call on Jan. 9, Rolls-Royce CEO Torsten Müller-Ötvös said his brand would not wade into the adventuring variants racket, even though it seemed so lucrative for others.
Rolls-Royce reported a record year on Monday, having delivered 6,021 vehicles in 2022, up 8 percent over 2021.
“We stick with what we have when we go into certain segments, so then it’s the real stuff,” Müller-Ötvös said.
“We do not do transitional things just to maybe catch the one or the other trend. It would not be looked as truly authentic Rolls-Royce.”
