In the first quarter of 2022, 11% fewer exotic cars were delivered to customers in Europe, beating the overall market which is down 13%. The compact sports car segment also beats the overall market with a 5% decline, while the large sports car segment does even better with a 14% gain in deliveries.
For the last 2 years, Ferrari has held 3 of the top-4 spots in the Exotic car segment, and in 2021 it even had the overall best seller with the F8. Also, the Italian brand’s share of the class drops from 9 percentage points from nearly 50% to 40.7%. In the first quarter of 2022, The Bentley Continental GT/GTC has reclaimed the top spot thank to deliveries soaring 58% while the Ferrari F8 delivers 21% fewer units. And there’s a newcomer in the top-3, as the Lamborghini Huracan is up 50% to jump onto the segment podium, outselling the Ferrari SF90 Stradale (+10%) and Ferrari 812 (-38%). The Aston Martin DB11 is up 6% to move ahead of the McLaren 700 Series (-27%). All other nameplates are losing sales quickly. The Aston Martin DBS Superleggera does relatively well at -38%, followed by the Lamborghini Aventador (-47%). The McLaren GT (-64%) narrowly stays ahead of the Rolls Royce Wraith (-56%) and Ferrai Monza (-71%), while the McLaren 500/600 Series drops behind all three of the former with sales down 77%. We welcome the Aston Martin Valkyrie with its first registration.
2022-Q1 – Exotic car sales Europe
| Exotic car segment | 2022-Q1 | 2021-Q1 | Change | 2022 share | 2021 share | |
| 1 | Bentley Continental GT / GTC | 464 | 294 | 58% | 27,1% | 15,4% |
| 2 | Ferrari F8 | 373 | 474 | -21% | 21,8% | 24,8% |
| 3 | Lamborghini Huracan | 219 | 146 | 50% | 12,8% | 7,6% |
| 4 | Ferrari SF90 Stradale | 177 | 161 | 10% | 10,4% | 8,4% |
| 5 | Ferrari 812 Superfast | 131 | 210 | -38% | 7,7% | 11,0% |
| 6 | Aston Martin DB11 | 103 | 97 | 6% | 6,0% | 5,1% |
| 7 | McLaren 700 Series | 82 | 113 | -27% | 4,8% | 5,9% |
| 8 | Aston Martin DBS Superleggera | 58 | 94 | -38% | 3,4% | 4,9% |
| 9 | Lamborghini Aventador | 46 | 86 | -47% | 2,7% | 4,5% |
| 10 | McLaren GT | 13 | 36 | -64% | 0,8% | 1,9% |
| 11 | Rolls Royce Wraith | 12 | 27 | -56% | 0,7% | 1,4% |
| 12 | Ferrari Monza | 10 | 34 | -71% | 0,6% | 1,8% |
| 13 | McLaren 500/600 Series | 9 | 39 | -77% | 0,5% | 2,0% |
| 14 | Rolls Royce Dawn | 5 | 19 | -74% | 0,3% | 1,0% |
| 15 | Ferrari 488 GTB | 5 | 73 | -93% | 0,3% | 3,8% |
| 16 | Ford GT | 2 | 12 | -83% | 0,1% | 0,6% |
| 17 | Aston Martin Valkyrie | 1 | 0 | New | 0,1% | 0,0% |
| Segment total | 1.710 | 1.915 | -11% |
Large Sports car segment
The large sports car segment is one of the very few segments to improve in the first quarter of 2022 with a 14% increase in deliveries. The Porsche 911 consolidates its absolute dominance with sales up an impressive 20% to improve its share of the class to 65.5%. Its closes challenger Mercedes-AMG GT is up 18% even though the roadster version is about to be renamed the Mercedes-AMG SL, leaving just the Coupe. That knocks the Jaguar F-Type into third place with sales down by a quarter. The Ferrari Roma is up 18% and under threat from the Aston Martin Vantage, up 53%. The Corvette, thanks to the new rear-engined version, is up almost tenfold and is chasing the Audi R8, down 21%. The Ferrari Portofino (+165%) moves back ahead of the Lexus LC (-43%). We welcome two newcomers Maserati MC20 and Ferrari 296GTB at #10 and #11, ahead of the Mercedes-Benz SL which is due to be renewed as mentioned above, and the Nissan GT-R.
2022-Q1 – large sports car sales Europe
| Large sports car segment | 2022-Q1 | 2021-Q1 | Change | 2022 share | 2021 share | |
| 1 | Porsche 911 | 4.818 | 4.017 | 20% | 65,5% | 62,5% |
| 2 | Mercedes-AMG GT | 820 | 696 | 18% | 11,2% | 10,8% |
| 3 | Jaguar F-type | 633 | 847 | -25% | 8,6% | 13,2% |
| 4 | Ferrari Roma | 294 | 249 | 18% | 4,0% | 3,9% |
| 5 | Aston Martin V8/V12 Vantage | 222 | 145 | 53% | 3,0% | 2,3% |
| 6 | Audi R8 | 136 | 172 | -21% | 1,8% | 2,7% |
| 7 | Corvette | 129 | 14 | 821% | 1,8% | 0,2% |
| 8 | Ferrari Portofino | 98 | 37 | 165% | 1,3% | 0,6% |
| 9 | Lexus LC | 75 | 131 | -43% | 1,0% | 2,0% |
| 10 | Maserati MC20 | 69 | 0 | New | 0,9% | 0,0% |
| 11 | Ferrari 296 GTB | 33 | 0 | New | 0,4% | 0,0% |
| 12 | Mercedes-Benz SL | 22 | 41 | -46% | 0,3% | 0,6% |
| 13 | Nissan GT-R | 4 | 74 | -95% | 0,1% | 1,2% |
| Segment total | 7.353 | 6.423 | 14% |
Compact Sports car segment
Compact sports cars have underperformed in recent years, and even though they’re still not doing as well as the large sports cars and exotic cars, at least they’re beating the overall market. The BMW Z4 continues its class leadership, despite losing 13% of its sales and 2 percentage points of share to 22.9%. The Mazda MX-5 is down 8% and stays ahead of the Audi TT, which is surprisingly up 30% on last year to hold on to the podium place it also held in the 2021 full year ranking. The Porsche 718 is the worst performer in the top-6 at -19% but is still well ahead of the Ford Mustang, up 21% and the Alpine A110, the best performer of the class at +74%. The Toyota Supra loses just over half of its sales, while production of the Lotus Elise (+10%) and Exige (-15%) ended this quarter. The Mustang’s rivals Dodge Challenger (-27%) and Chevrolet Camaro (-88%) achieve just a handful of sales for the quarter. The Toyota GT86 and Subaru BRZ twins are due to be redesigned. The new generations have already arrived in North American showrooms, but European dealers and customers have to wait just a little longer.
2022-Q1 – small sports car sales Europe
| Compact sports car segment | 2022-Q1 | 2021-Q1 | Change | 2022 share | 2021 share | |
| 1 | BMW Z4 | 1.721 | 1.983 | -13% | 22,9% | 24,9% |
| 2 | Mazda MX-5 | 1.447 | 1.576 | -8% | 19,3% | 19,8% |
| 3 | Audi TT | 1.321 | 1.014 | 30% | 17,6% | 12,8% |
| 4 | Porsche 718 Boxster/Cayman | 1.237 | 1.528 | -19% | 16,5% | 19,2% |
| 5 | Ford Mustang | 801 | 663 | 21% | 10,7% | 8,3% |
| 6 | Alpine A110 | 644 | 371 | 74% | 8,6% | 4,7% |
| 7 | Toyota Supra | 180 | 365 | -51% | 2,4% | 4,6% |
| 8 | Lotus Elise | 87 | 79 | 10% | 1,2% | 1,0% |
| 9 | Lotus Exige | 47 | 55 | -15% | 0,6% | 0,9% |
| 10 | Dodge Challenger | 11 | 15 | -27% | 0,1% | 0,2% |
| 11 | Chevrolet Camaro | 7 | 60 | -88% | 0,1% | 0,8% |
| 12 | Mercedes-Benz SLC | 7 | 166 | -96% | 0,1% | 2,1% |
| 13 | Lotus Evora | 3 | 12 | -75% | 0,0% | 0,2% |
| 14 | Subaru BRZ | 2 | 47 | -96% | 0,0% | 0,6% |
| 15 | Toyota GT86 | 1 | 15 | -93% | 0,0% | 0,2% |
| Segment total | 7.516 | 7.949 | -5% |
Car sales statistics are from the following countries: Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland.
Sources: Manufacturers, ANDC, JATO Dynamics.