How Ferrari's 'unpredictability' is leading to record results

Ferrari had been consistently breaking its global sales record, putting it in position to soon top 15,000 supercars a year. The model driving Ferrari toward that target is its first SUV, the Purosangue, which has far exceeded sales expectation since deliveries started last year. The man spearheading Ferrari's growth is Chief Marketing and Commercial Officer Enrico Galliera, who came to the automaker in 2010 after a decade at the Italian pasta giant Barilla. With sales on the rise, Galliera's focus is making sure Ferrari maintains its exclusivity. He is also determined to keep coupes and roadsters at the heart of the company's success. That is why Purosangue sales have been capped at no more than 20 percent of Ferrari's total volume, ensuring that the automaker doesn't become overdependent on the SUV. To further help exclusivity, Galliera has created road and track events where Ferrari owners can experience the performance of their cars while connecting with a community of fellow owners. The events provide Ferrari an opportunity to build interest and presales in future models. Galliera discusses these topics and more with Automotive News Europe Associate Publisher and Editor Luca Ciferri at Ferrari headquarters in Maranello, Italy, last month.

Ferrari has sold out the first two years of Purosangue production. Do the people buying the car match the customer profile you created for the Purosangue and how do they differ from people who buy your sports cars?

The answer is that we made life difficult for ourselves because we made a car so successful that it went far beyond our expectations. When we developed the Purosangue, we thought it would open up a new segment, as we did recently with the California, Portofino and Roma. These models attracted a significant percentage of customers who had never thought of buying a Ferrari. We thought the same would happen with the Purosangue.

Instead?

The Purosangue has been so successful that practically all of our current customers want one. So, we are delivering almost all the first cars to our top collectors. These are people who, as soon as they knew what kind of car it was, ordered it. When it comes to Purosangue customers who do not already have a Ferrari, the percentage of women is higher than in the rest of the range. Therefore, it represents a further expansion of our customer base.

How many Purosangues have you delivered?

A few hundred in 2023; this year there will be more.

For Aston Martin, Bentley, Lamborghini, Lotus and Rolls-Royce, the SUV has quickly become their best seller. Why do you want to prevent that from happening at Ferrari?

For many manufacturers the SUV has risen to 50 percent -- or more -- of their sales. Therefore, we capped Purosangue production to a maximum of 20 percent of our total output during its entire life cycle. We did this because we want to maintain the exclusivity of the brand and the model. This aligns with the philosophy of our founder, Enzo Ferrari, who said, "Ferrari will always deliver one car less than the market demands." So, even with the Purosangue, we want to maintain this high level of exclusivity, where the beauty of the car and the performance have made it an object of desire.

Isn't it nonsense for a publicly traded company to limit the production of its most successful model?

I'm not a numbers man. So, perhaps this is a question to ask my colleagues in finance. I'm a salesman who sells vehicles. As a salesman, I can say that one of Ferrari's goals is to have a range of products that are very versatile, very high performance and also very profitable. Each model has a different profile and is an important element in achieving our goals. So, it is a mix of factors ranging from the product range to ancillary activities, customizations, spare parts, road and track events, which lead to a final result that to date has been quite satisfactory in terms of profitability. To guarantee these results in the future, I have to maintain this exclusivity, this desire that translates into a very long waiting list. This allows me to predict my future with more reliability than companies that deliver based on demand. The combination of these two factors has also enabled us to perform extremely well on the stock market. However, Ferrari is a company that is part of Formula One, and when you race, you have to keep improving.

Did you reach 14,000 sales last year?

The 2023 numbers are not yet official, but we did better than 2022, when we sold 13,200 units.

Looking ahead, can we imagine the next Purosangue being electric-only?

We don't speculate on future models. What I can confirm is that our first electric car will arrive in the fourth quarter of 2025, and it will be a full-fledged Ferrari sports car.

Will it have two or four seats?

For us, sports cars can also have four seats. In the past, we divided our products into two ranges: Sport and GT. The Sport range was the most extreme in terms of performance, where today we have the SF90, 296 GTB and GTS. The GT range, where we have the Roma and the Portofino, was a little less extreme. In recent years we have changed this paradigm a bit because the Roma and Portofino also offer extraordinary performance, along with a more attractive design that we call understated luxury, more space and more comfort on board. Therefore, today we call our entire range Sport, including the Purosangue, because when you drive it, you realize that it is a sports car with extraordinary performance, but with four seats.

How will you maintain Ferrari's DNA in your electric cars?

This is a big challenge, and it's the reason why we have been working on it for a long time. What makes today's Ferraris successful is the thrill of driving, which stems from five factors. The first three are longitudinal acceleration, lateral acceleration and braking. These elements are also easy to achieve in an electric car. Longitudinal acceleration is a strongly influenced by the electric motor. For lateral acceleration it is enough to work on the suspension. For braking, it is all about the size the brakes. Then there are two other elements that we believe contribute to driving pleasure: the shifting of gears and the sound of the engine, which are not part of an electric car. So, our challenge is to make an electric Ferrari that gives the same driving emotions as a combustion one.

Will you create a "fake" engine roar?

Not necessarily. It is true that the electric motor does not make noise, but there are real sounds related to the operation of the electrical components which, if properly exploited, can contribute to the driving pleasure.

For shifting, will the EV have a traditional lever in the tunnel or paddles behind the steering wheel?

For the moment, I can only say that we want to ensure the thrill of shifting carries over to an electric Ferrari.

In 2023 Ferrari won the 24 Hours of Le Mans with the 499P. That in turn led to the creation of the 499P Modificata. What is the logic behind offering a track-ready race car that is not for competitive use?

One of the reasons for Ferrari's success is our unpredictability. That is why we decided to give customers who knows how to drive well the opportunity to do so in a proper race car. The 499P Modificata has been adapted to accommodate someone with less experience and training than a professional driver, but it is the same car that won at Le Mans.

How many 499P Modificatas will you sell and how much will they cost? Media reports say the price after taxes is more than 5 million euros.

We have had an extraordinary level of interest, and while I won't reveal the exact number we will produce, I can say it will be a few dozen. The price will be in line with that of a true race car. It is worth noting that, as we have done in the past, we will offer customers of the car the opportunity to enter an exclusive club that gives them the chance to drive the 499P Modificata on various circuits around the world.

Ferrari had an excellent third quarter, the only blemish was an 8 percent sales decline in China. What happened there?

Let's put our China performance in context. We had such strong sales in the first two quarters that a slight slowdown was expected in the third quarter. Despite this, our nine-month volume is still up. China, like the rest of the world, experienced an explosion in consumption from the post-COVID rebound. This included extraordinary interest in luxury sports cars. China's consumption level has normalized to what we saw prior to the pandemic. That being said, Ferrari customers in China still have to wait an average of one year for delivery, so demand is extremely solid.

When you arrived at Ferrari, you pushed for initiatives to get customers to use their cars more. Where did this idea come from?

This results from something that happened shortly after I arrived at Ferrari. A customer, who for years had dreamed about having one of our cars, finally got one. Then he got busy with a thousand commitments, forcing him to leave the car in the garage for several months. When he finally had time to drive it, the battery was dead. He was frustrated and didn't want to use it anymore. That is when I got the spark. Since most of our cars belong to customers who love to drive, we needed to create opportunities for them to do so. These opportunities would put them together with other Ferrari customers, giving them to chance to enjoy what they had bought. The more they experience driving their cars the more they may consider changing to another model or adding a new model to their collection. We have held events on tracks and other places around the world that have brought us together with thousands of customers every month. The program has been very successful. It has created a community of people who feel very close to Ferrari and who love to be told they are members of the Ferrari family. In addition, it has led many customers to buy a second or third Ferrari.

Once upon a time, the company's slogan was "Different Ferraris for different Ferraristi." What is it now?

Different Ferraris for different moments. If I'm traveling with my family, I'll take the Purosangue. If I'm traveling alone, I'll take the 296 GTB or the 812 Superfast. The idea is that once the customer enters the Ferrari universe, he will find a range that meets his various used needs and therefore expand the number of our cars he owns.