The Sunday Mail
A US$1,85 million Bugatti with platinum trim, a silent electric Lamborghini that hits 60 miles an hour in three seconds, and a $570 000 Rolls-Royce with in-built dining tables — when the super rich hit the road next year they will be given more choice than ever.
At the recent Paris Auto Show, Volkswagen AG, the parent of Bugatti and Lamborghini, is embracing the thirst for vehicles and will pump more cash into a new Bugatti, as the final 20 vehicles from the 450 Veyron units roll off the production line.
Ferrari introduced a limited edition open-top version of its 458 Speciale in Paris and expects to increase deliveries by 5 percent this year to cut the waiting list.
The glitz at the car bazaar masked a less robust market for more utilitarian models, with Volkswagen cutting back on its bread-and-butter offerings that include the Golf and Tiguan, and Ford Motor Co lowering its earnings forecast last week, saying European operations will miss its profit target next year.
European car sales grew at their slowest pace this year in August, adding to concern that demand may lose momentum.
“The gap is widening between the super-rich and the rest,” said Stefan Bratzel, director of the Centre of Automotive Management at the University of Applied Sciences in Bergisch Gladbach, Germany. “These niche brands aren’t generally money-makers, but they’re important as technological guideposts.”
High cost
With the cost of developing the Bugatti Veyron, VW stands to lose 4,6 million euros per vehicle over its life-cycle, according to estimates from Max Warburton, a Singapore-based analyst for Sanford Bernstein Ltd.
Still, for the German carmaker, that’s a price worth paying if the ultra-high-end car showcases its technical prowess and attracts customers to its cheaper luxury brands that include Porsche and Audi.
The limited-edition Rolls-Royce Phantom Metropolitan sedan — with picnic accessories and imaginary city skylines as decor options finished in 500 individual wood veneer pieces — was only introduced last week and is already sold out at a price of 450 075 euros. Only 20 cars will be built.
“We are talking about customers that even have more than 100 cars in the garage, or at least 10 or 12 cars,” said Torsten Mueller-Oetvoes, the head of Rolls-Royce, which is owned by Bayerische Motoren Werke AG. “People who have garages like you and me would have wardrobes.”
Keeping the super affluent on edge by limiting supply of the most expensive models is also a strategy of Ferrari.
A batch of 10 limited-edition sports cars, which cost about 2,5 million euros each and were made to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the brand in the US, have all been pre-sold, Chief Executive Officer of parent Fiat SpA Sergio Marchionne said in Paris.
Still, raising output is still a requirement to satisfy demand, he said.
“If you have to wait 24 months to get a Ferrari then it’s too long,” Marchionne said. If the super-rich class grows, “we have an obligation not to choke supply.”
Rolls-Royce Equips $570 000 Phantom Variant for Picnics
Sometimes midtown just isn’t the right spot to get out of your limo for a picnic. Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Ltd may have the answer: food hampers and inlaid tables for en route dining in the Phantom Metropolitan.
The limited-edition version of the top-of-the-line Phantom sedan, introduced at the Paris Motor Show and already sold out at 450 075 euros (US$570 000), features picnic accessories as well as imaginary city skylines as decor options with a “full palette” choice of 44 000 colours, the Goodwood, England-based unit of Bayerische Motoren Werke AG (BMW) said in a presentation.
Rolls-Royce is set to exceed 4 000 deliveries in a year for the first time in 2014, Chief Executive Officer Torsten Mueller-Oetvoes said in Bloomberg Television interview at the show, without specifying how many of those will include the 20 made-to-order Phantom Metropolitans the company plans to build.
“We are at the pinnacle of automotive luxury,” Mueller-Oetvoes said. “What you get is excellent substance” with the new model.
The Phantom Metropolitan’s picnic-table marquetry is composed of 500 small wood pieces arranged to display a cityscape from above when folded out for use and a skyline when stowed. The inlay work takes “at least a couple of days” to complete, Mueller-Oetvoes said.
The high-class urban theme is echoed in interior embroidery patterns such as an abstract skyscraper image on the central rear-seat flutes, as well as a bespoke clock on the front console showing the time in 24 of the world’s major cities.
The manufacturer’s first-half sales jumped 33 percent to 1 968 cars, and a delivery record this year would be Rolls-Royce’s fifth in a row.
The brand, owned by Munich-based BMW since 2003, produces the 326 550-euro Wraith and upcoming 326 175-euro Ghost Series II in addition to the standard 345 000-euro Phantom.
The division, which said in August that it’s developing an open-top model to go on sale by mid-2016, is looking at whether to follow Volkswagen AG’s Bentley and Porsche nameplates and make a sport-utility vehicle. — Bloomberg.
