Photo: Corriere della Sera
Last February, Sergio Marchionne said he would rather be shot than let Ferrari ever build an SUV. But as the chairman announced record profits this year, he seemed altogether more willing to play by the market's rules.
Ferrari and McLaren were the last bastions standing unconquered by the horde of SUV barbarians. But now Sergio says the utility vehicle that was rumored recently would "probably happen" in a conference call Wednesday. Did he find out that getting shot isn't that bad?
You could argue that the SUV has already claimed the purity of companies like Porsche, Bentley and is about to do the same for Lamborghini. But without the Cayenne, Stuttgart wouldn't have the money to make such a great 911 or the fantastic 918 flagship.
"It will probably happen, but it will happen in Ferrari's style," CEO Sergio Marchionne said on a conference call Wednesday after Ferrari reported a 24 percent advance in second-quarter profit, according to Autonews. "That space is too big and too inviting and we have a lot of our customers who will be more than willing to drive a Ferrari-branded vehicle that has that king of utilitarian objective."
Is it like a Holden Ute, a Range Rover or perhaps closer to the Tesla Model X? Nobody really knows, but it's being reported that some details will be revealed together with a new five-year plan in the first quarter of 2018.
The main aim is to double profits by 2022, and that could also include going well over the current self-imposed production limit set by Ferrari at 10,000 cars per year, which hasn't even been hit yet.
The figure is there to keep Ferrari exclusive, and out of the hands of the masses, it also plays a part in keeping the supercar brand within certain emissions parameters in some markets. To compensate, every model will probably have some form of hybrid tech soon.
We could speculate that the Ferrari Ute' will have slightly raised suspension and the suicide doors of a Mazda RX-8. However, Maranello's designers are probably more creative than even Sergio can imagine, so expect the unexpected.
You could argue that the SUV has already claimed the purity of companies like Porsche, Bentley and is about to do the same for Lamborghini. But without the Cayenne, Stuttgart wouldn't have the money to make such a great 911 or the fantastic 918 flagship.
"It will probably happen, but it will happen in Ferrari's style," CEO Sergio Marchionne said on a conference call Wednesday after Ferrari reported a 24 percent advance in second-quarter profit, according to Autonews. "That space is too big and too inviting and we have a lot of our customers who will be more than willing to drive a Ferrari-branded vehicle that has that king of utilitarian objective."
Is it like a Holden Ute, a Range Rover or perhaps closer to the Tesla Model X? Nobody really knows, but it's being reported that some details will be revealed together with a new five-year plan in the first quarter of 2018.
The main aim is to double profits by 2022, and that could also include going well over the current self-imposed production limit set by Ferrari at 10,000 cars per year, which hasn't even been hit yet.
The figure is there to keep Ferrari exclusive, and out of the hands of the masses, it also plays a part in keeping the supercar brand within certain emissions parameters in some markets. To compensate, every model will probably have some form of hybrid tech soon.
We could speculate that the Ferrari Ute' will have slightly raised suspension and the suicide doors of a Mazda RX-8. However, Maranello's designers are probably more creative than even Sergio can imagine, so expect the unexpected.
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