Sales of exotic cars in Europe outgrow the overall market in Q1 of 2016 with an increase of 11% to 1.459 units. About one third of those are for the Bentley Continental GT, which still comfortably leads the segment despite the arrival of the Ferrari 488 GTB in showrooms. Last year’s #3, the Lamborghini Huracan, suffers from the new competitor and drops to fifth place, even though deliveries of the Spyder started this quarter. We’ll have to wait and see how sales develop in the next quarter, when the drop-top version reaches its full potential, before jumping to conclusions about the Gallardo replacement. The third podium position is now held by the Aston Martin DB9, up 38% despite being in the final stages of its life cycle and its replacement DB11 ready to take over.
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The Ferrari F12 also shows a nice improvement of 22% and now outsells the Aston Martin Vanquish, which loses that same percentage of sales and is now under threat from the Lamborghini Aventador. The Rolls Royce Wraith is stable, although those may include sales of the Dawn convertible, which are not specified. Bugatti sold (probably) its last Veyron before deliveries of the Chiron start later this year.
2016 Q1 Exotic car sales Europe
| Exotic car segment | 2016 Q1 | 2015 Q1 | Change | |
| 1 | Bentley Continental GT / GTC | 452 | 423 | 7% |
| 2 | Ferrari 488 GTB | 342 | 0 | New |
| 3 | Aston Martin DB9 | 108 | 78 | 38% |
| 4 | Ferrari F12 | 105 | 86 | 22% |
| 5 | Lamborghini Huracan | 102 | 153 | -33% |
| 6 | Aston Martin Vanquish | 77 | 99 | -22% |
| 7 | Lamborghini Aventador | 75 | 54 | 39% |
| 8 | Rolls Royce Wraith | 56 | 56 | 0% |
| 9 | Ferrari 458 Italia | 39 | 267 | -85% |
| 10 | Ferrari FF | 33 | 43 | -23% |
| 11 | Bugatti | 1 | 2 | -50% |
| Segment total | 1.459 | 1.315 | 11% |
Large Sports car segment
The large sports car segments grows almost as fast as the overall market at +7% after already growing 12% in all of 2015. The commanding champion of the segment, the Porsche 911, outgrows the segment and is back above 50% share again. Its closest rival, the Jaguar F-Type wins just 2% while the Mercedes-AMG GT is still unable to threaten those two leaders despite being the fastest growing model in the segment by far. The new generation Audi R8 has finally arrived and is already up to #4, ahead of the plug-in hybrid sports car BMW i8, down a harsh 41%. The Mercedes-Benz SL suffers from cannibalization by its more sporty sibling AMG GT, while the Ferrari California T is already down after jumping last year when it was facelifted. The new 488 GTB probably doesn’t help.
2016 Q1 large sports car sales Europe
| Large sportscar segment | 2016 Q1 |
2015 Q1 |
Change | |
| 1 | Porsche 911 | 4.048 | 3.588 | 13% |
| 2 | Jaguar F-type | 1.232 | 1.206 | 2% |
| 3 | Mercedes-AMG GT | 812 | 324 | 151% |
| 4 | Audi R8 | 520 | 296 | 76% |
| 5 | BMW i8 | 441 | 750 | -41% |
| 6 | Mercedes-Benz SL | 373 | 608 | -39% |
| 7 | Aston Martin V8/V12 Vantage | 201 | 189 | 6% |
| 8 | Ferrari California | 169 | 229 | -26% |
| 9 | Maserati GranTurismo | 77 | 103 | -25% |
| 10 | Maserati GranCabrio | 71 | 53 | 34% |
| Segment total | 7.944 | 7.434 | 7% |
Small Sports car segment
Small sports car are regaining some of their popularity in Europe: after growing 23% in 2015, the segment is up another 52% in the first quarter of 2016, helped by a number of new models. The segment leader Audi TT loses share but is still up a respectable 21% as its third generation is still pretty fresh. However, the new fourth generation Mazda MX-5 more than triples the volume of its predecessor last year and storms to second place, just ahead of the all-new Ford Mustang, which is now finally officially sold in Europe through the Ford dealer network. This has resulted in over 4.000 sales in the first quarter, with more to come as March sales were already up to 1.760 units.
Behind this dominant top-3, which take about two thirds of segment sales, the Mercedes-Benz SLK is knocked off its #2 spot in the middle of its changeover to the new name: SLC. The Porsche Boxster, freshly updated and officially also renamed 718 Boxster, and its coupe sibling Cayman which is due for a similar update, are doing amazingly well in fifth and sixth place, while the BMW Z4 is the oldest model in the top-10. The Alfa Romeo 4C more than triples and is now above 100 monthly units and closing in on the Toyota GT86. The Peugeot RCZ loses three quarters of its volume and won’t be replaced.
2016 Q1 small sports car sales Europe
| Compact sportscar segment | 2016 Q1 | 2015 Q1 | Change | |
| 1 | Audi TT | 6.349 | 5.250 | 21% |
| 2 | Mazda MX-5 | 4.255 | 1.149 | 270% |
| 3 | Ford Mustang | 4.039 | 35 | New |
| 4 | Mercedes-Benz SLK | 1.787 | 3.189 | -44% |
| 5 | Porsche Boxster | 1.579 | 1.065 | 48% |
| 6 | Porsche Cayman | 1.233 | 648 | 90% |
| 7 | BMW Z4 | 914 | 1.207 | -24% |
| 8 | Mercedes-Benz SLC | 715 | 0 | New |
| 9 | Toyota GT86 | 395 | 398 | -1% |
| 10 | Alfa Romeo 4C | 307 | 90 | 241% |
| 11 | Peugeot RCZ | 280 | 1.180 | -76% |
| 12 | Nissan 370Z | 255 | 222 | 15% |
| 13 | Subaru BRZ | 98 | 117 | -16% |
| 14 | Lotus Exige | 86 | 72 | 19% |
| 15 | Lotus Elise | 68 | 78 | -13% |
| 16 | Chevrolet Camaro | 49 | 48 | 2% |
| 17 | Lotus Evora | 49 | 42 | 17% |
| Segment total | 22.458 | 14.798 | 52% |