Ferrari & Aston’s Q2 Results

Just put together an article on Ferrari & Aston’s Q2 results. Very interesting what was and what was not said in the Q&A session:

https://karenable.com/aston-martin-f...-2020-results/

Not normally one for your market research posts (informative though they are), more your driving ones, but found that interesting. In particular I found what you said about Ferrari relying more and more heavily of 'Special' series cars and revenue from highly customised cars to be a concern. I've always thought that as companies put out more and more 'special' models the long term effect is that 'special' stops being special. It's a bit like trying to stand out in a crowd, if everyone 'stands out' no one does. While I agree with that sentiment, not being a follower of these things I didn't really understand why this strategy may be financially risky for Ferrari? Do you see the market changing at some point and the desire for 'different' somehow going away?

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Originally Posted by Nosevi

Not normally one for your market research posts (informative though they are), more your driving ones, but found that interesting. In particular I found what you said about Ferrari relying more and more heavily of 'Special' series cars and revenue from highly customised cars to be a concern. I've always thought that as companies put out more and more 'special' models the long term effect is that 'special' stops being special. It's a bit like trying to stand out in a crowd, if everyone 'stands out' no one does. While I agree with that sentiment, not being a follower of these things I didn't really understand why this strategy may be financially risky for Ferrari? Do you see the market changing at some point and the desire for 'different' somehow going away?

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I don't think the desire for different will ever go away. Its got more to do with the target customers for all these different "specials". Fact is its mostly the same people that Ferrari or McLaren are pushing these cars at. At some point a number will (and have) pushed back and said they are not interested. On the Monza SP1 & SP2 I know Ferrari was shocked by the number of there top customers who turned the car down and had to go to the "B" list to get them all sold. In McLaren's case the party ended with a major blow up on the Elva. Originally they planned on producing 399, which was then cut to 249 "to make it more exclusive" and the final number I believe is now at 149. A huge numbers Senna, Speedtail, and P1 owners who they were targeting all said no. Its one thing when you do a "special" hypercar once every 5-8 years and a Pista or TdF every 2-3 years, its another when is almost every year. It effectively stops being "special". The financial risk is Ferrari makes much higher margins on the "specials" than the base cars. If the market shrinks for them, it will pull down Ferraris overall profitability by a couple of margin points.

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Originally Posted by Boxer

I don't think the desire for different will ever go away. Its got more to do with the target customers for all these different "specials". Fact is its mostly the same people that Ferrari or McLaren are pushing these cars at. At some point a number will (and have) pushed back and said they are not interested. On the Monza SP1 & SP2 I know Ferrari was shocked by the number of there top customers who turned the car down and had to go to the "B" list to get them all sold. In McLaren's case the party ended with a major blow up on the Elva. Originally they planned on producing 399, which was then cut to 249 "to make it more exclusive" and the final number I believe is now at 149. A huge numbers Senna, Speedtail, and P1 owners who they were targeting all said no. Its one thing when you do a "special" hypercar once every 5-8 years and a Pista or TdF every 2-3 years, its another when is almost every year. It effectively stops being "special". The financial risk is Ferrari makes much higher margins on the "specials" than the base cars. If the market shrinks for them, it will pull down Ferraris overall profitability by a couple of margin points.

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Always interesting to see the investor analyst view on things. We are privately owned but heavily linked to the fortunes of these companies.

There were no surprises in your take on the two companies in question and I look forward to your take on Mclaren

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Originally Posted by Modificato

Always interesting to see the investor analyst view on things. We are privately owned but heavily linked to the fortunes of these companies.

There were no surprises in your take on the two companies in question and I look forward to your take on Mclaren

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I am very interested to see what McLaren has to say. What's interesting about McLaren is they have been very transparent so far despite not needing to be given they are still private. If I had to guess McLaren's results will be similar, but a bit more positive than Astons.