Big automakers like Toyota and General Motors sell millions of cars each year. Niche brands like Porsche move about 35,000. Ferrari sells about one-fifth of that. But the famed Italian automaker isn't struggling to jack up production. It sees preserving "scarcity and exclusivity” as the best way to ensure each vehicle is more valuable. So in 2013, it scaled production back by 5 percent, from 7,400 to 7,000 cars. It worked: Net revenues rose 5 percent, to €2.335 million ($2.95 million).
When your company is all about making each car worth as much as possible, you put a lot into building them. That’s the whole point. These photos by Luca Locatelli offer a look at that process. The factory in Maranello is a modern place where machines do the actual heavy lifting, but Ferrari hasn’t done away with the human touch that makes its cars special. Engineers still climb into, under, and on top of each car as it moves down the assembly line. Ferrari's among the few brands that still do things this way, like Bentley, Rolls-Royce, and Lamborghini.
But life in Maranello is about to change. Luca di Montezemolo, the longtime and much-revered chairman of the company, resigned in September amid tensions with Fiat Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne, who argues Ferrari should be making more cars for more profits. Now, Marchionne and the board have decided to sell Ferrari through a public offering of 10 percent of shares, with the rest going to current Fiat Chrysler shareholders.
There’s no way of knowing who might buy all those shares (Volkswagen? Elon Musk? Putin?) or what the sale might mean for Ferrari. But if Ferrari goes the route of Porsche and increases volume, starts making hybrids, and creates (gasp!) an SUV, things could change drastically. So drink in the beauty of the process while you know you can.
