Frankfurt Auto Show Part 2: The secret behind Maserati sales

Maserati Quattroporte at the Frankfurt Auto Show 2013.

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This is part two of a 5-part series dedicated to the Frankfurt Auto Show. You can read Part 1 about Tesla here. I was lucky enough to speak with Thomas Kern from Maserati Germany. At BSCB I have been receiving a few queries from you readers about the exceptionally high sales figure Maserati recently communicated (17,000 sales in H1 2013). Well this figure actually corresponds to orders, and has since increased to 20,000 at the end of August. All good and well, but according to Mr Kern Maserati is actually predicting 16,500 sales worldwide in 2013.

Maserati Ghibli at the Frankfurt Auto Show 2013

Still, this figure will be an all-time record for the brand, beating its previous best of 9,000 in 2008. Ghibli projections are 20,000 annual sales, and Maserati hopes this model will account for 40% of its total. Projections for the Levante SUV, planned to launch in Q2 2015, are similar at 20,000 annual units once the model hits its cruise level in 2016-2017. So the target of 50,000 global sales by 2016 is what Maserati is still tabling on, even though it appeared outlandish when announced last year. Let’s just say if Maserati continues at the same growth level as the one displayed this year, it’s looking good indeed.

The sales charts don’t lie: the new gen Mercedes A-Class is everywhere…

This German update is brought to you by Mercedes-Benz.

Given this is a rather short post, I thought I’d complete it by giving you my impression of the car landscape I saw in Germany today, keeping in mind this is based on what I could see from the train and the 30 minutes I walked around Frankfurt-am-Main so not at all representative but a good snapshot nevertheless. Firstly, the new generations BMW 1 Series, Mercedes A-Class and E-Class are present in droves on the streets, so the German sales charts are not lying on that one! I also saw a Lancia Ypsilon and my first Opel Cascada…

I noticed a lot of station wagons in the streets of Frankfurt-am-Main…

My second observation is the strong prevalence of station wagons. Given this is not something we can deduct from the traditional monthly ranking I publish, I thought it would be worth mentioning. Between one third and half of all BMW 3 Series, 5 Series, Audi A4, VW Passat and Mercedes E-Class I saw were station wagons, so the same segments as in Italy, only with a lower SW ratio… If you have access to SW data for Germany, please contact me so we can put this observation to the stats test!