21 May 2022
Over the last few years, a most interesting phenomenon has occurred, when the world was told ‘to stay at home’. It seems the market for high performance and ultra-luxury has been incredibly buoyant.
How could this be; the explanation given is quite simply one of boredom, yes, boredom. If this is true, it would seem the super-rich are bored and buying super and hypercars as a reasonable way to battle boredom; evidently, it is a way of redirecting funds that otherwise would have been for luxury travel.
Due to a computer-chip shortage and other pandemic-related disruptions, car manufacturers lost millions of sales in 2021, whilst the premium carmakers soared, Rolls-Royce sold a record 5,586 cars in 2021, up 49% from 2020. Bentley moved 14,659 vehicles, a 31% increase over the previous year; Porsche and Lamborghini also had record-breaking years.
During this time, stock markets surged, one that has doubled the wealth of the ten wealthiest people in two years—providing opportunities for the very rich to become even wealthier. What better way to spend some of that excess wealth than on the odd Supercar or two.
To contextualise, in 2012, only 6% of cars bought in the US cost $50,000 or more; in 2021, that figure grew to 30%.
Markets will correct; they always do; hopefully, this short term economic euphoria won’t make us lose perspective.
It seems not all agree; one Bentley executive whose optimism knows no bounds recently stated, ‘It would take more than a pandemic to knock us off track again.’