Why A Ferrari SUV Is A Great Idea

The automotive industry changed a lot the past few years. There’s the obvious change from petrol fuelled cars to electric cars, but a slightly less notable switch-up is the growing SUV-segment. Some might say it’s a shame there are so many examples on the current market. We have different thoughts about this matter.

Photography: CarLifestyle

But first, a bit of history

In the 1970s, Land Rover was the leading manufacture of sports utility vehicle. Other popular SUV’s at the time were the Mercedes G-Wagon and Toyota Land Cruiser, but you can state Land Rover was the unchallenged player in the segment. SUV’s were intended for off-road stuff but that changed drastically when luxury SUV’s came onto the market.

One of the first cars in this particular segment was the Cadillac Escalade (1998). The Porsche Cayenne (2002) was a pretty big player in this segment as well. Although received with a mixed feeling, the public started to appreciate the excellent handling and V8-engines.

What would Enzo think?

Both Enzo Ferrari and former CEO Luca di Montezemelo were strongly against the idea of a Ferrari SUV. Montezemelo even told the press he’d rather get shot than building an SUV. Purist would agree with both Ferrari and Montezemelo.

The current CEO, Sergio Marchionne, stated that Ferrari is looking at producing a crossover that would fit in the current range of cars and more important, would fit in the history of the brand. ‘’Ferrari has been known historically to be able to redefine and define segments of the auto space.’’

So, why do we think it’s a great idea?

It might come as a surprise we’d like to see an FUV from Maranello, but in our opinion it would be a great opportunity for Ferrari. Just look at brands like Porsche and Bentley. The Cayenne and Macan are the company’s best-selling models of recent years, sales figures of 2016 even show that 68% of the worldwide sales were of these two cars. As for Bentley, 50% of the Bentayga buyers are first time Bentley owners.

There’s a huge demand for luxurious SUV’s, even Rolls-Royce, Maserati and Lamborghini are offering one, it’s too hard for Ferrari to ignore the success of having an SUV in your line-up. There’s no doubt it’ll become a success and the money earned could be invested in, arguably, more exciting projects such as the Formula 1 and general development of road cars.

To reach Sergio Marchionne’s main goal of building 10.000 cars a year, Ferrari needs a bestseller.  Since loads of other luxury car makers are introducing a FUV this is the way to go.

Written by Max Lammers.