Post-Pandemic Luxury Automotive Industry: Q1 2021

This period forced several automakers to undergo significant reorganisation. UK automakers Bentley, Aston Martin (already going through a difficult time), and McLaren particularly, had to lay off a considerable share of their personnel. Around 1,000, 500, and 1,200 workers respectively out of relatively small workforce compared to regular automakers. Additionally, many companies employed part of their resources to help their respective local or national public health system providing medical equipment.

However, despite the suffering, as discussed earlier, the luxury automotive segment was impacted less seriously. The first half of the year hit the companies more severely with the lockdowns, and all the companies showed signs of recovery in the second half of the year.

LUXURY CAR MANUFACTURERS SALES IN H1 AND H2 2020

WHAT ABOUT 2021?

The recovery continues in 2021. The vast majority of automakers (with a few who still haven’t published official numbers) reported positive results.

In the luxury segment, results are not just positive, but Bentley, Lamborghini, and Rolls-Royce have all reported record sales for their first quarter, growing respectively year-over-year by 40.2%, 24,6%, and 61.8%. Ferrari too has increased its deliveries to 2,771 units, a 1.2% more compared to 2020. This might seem less impressive, but it must be considered that its sales were already in line with 2019, the best year of the company, with deliveries that exceeded for the first time the 10,000 units. And surely Ferrari does not want to increase that volume massively incurring the risk of brand dilution.

On a separate note, Aston Martin, which was already going through a difficult time, instead made an even bigger step forward. The British automaker (which, must be said, started from a significantly low base volume in 2020) reported a +134% with 1353 cars sold in Q1 2021. 746 of those were SUVs. So, the DBX introduction seems to have had the effect it was supposed to have. Slightly more concerning, however, is the fact that almost like at Lamborghini, the other segments have remained almost stagnating, even though this is most likely due to the current line-up lifecycle and thus expected by Aston Martin’s decision-makers. The second rebirth could come with the production and delivery of the much expected Valkyrie, Valhalla, and Vanquish Vision.  

LUXURY CAR MANUFACTURERS FIRST QUARTER’S SALES (2020-2021)

*Porsche's data include only 911 sales

These results are especially positive if we consider that the biggest hit from the pandemic came, as specified before, with the shutdowns that generally happened in Q2. So, in most cases, the sales numbers were not affected by the virus outbreak at the time in 2020.

The trend however is not limited to the top-end of the market. Numbers reported by OEMs in the luxury and premium segment, right below the ones described before, tend to show similar if not even better results. The overall segment experienced a 29.6% growth compared to the still noteworthy 20.1% of the top luxury niche.

More modest instead is the result in the low to mid-price range passenger car market, where the overall growth among the reviewed brand is 8.1%.

OVERALL SALES IN THE FIRST QUARTER BY SEGMENT (2020-2021)

*Premium and Mass Market Segments are expressed in thousands (‘000)
*Luxury segment includes data from Aston Martin, Ferrari, Bentley, Rolls-Royce, Bugatti, Lamborghini, Porsche (only 911 and special editions)
*Premium segment includes data from BMW, Mini, Mercedes, Audi, Tesla, Porsche, Jaguar Land Rover, Maserati, Lincoln, Volvo *Mass market segment includes data from Toyota Group, VW, Skoda, Seat, Stellantis, Ford, GM, Renault Groupe, Hyundai, Kia, Nissan, Honda