Ferrari’s Profits Jump on China’s Love of Supercars

Thanks in part to an unexpected flood of money from the Chinese market, Ferrari's profits spiked higher than predicted in the second quarter of 2016.

Before calculating interest and taxes, Ferrari's profits rose 26 percent to €156 million (around $175 million), which is a jump from the estimated €134.9 million (roughly $151 million) that industry analysts previously predicted, Bloomberg reports. The supercar maker's revenue also climbed by 5.9 percent, and the company delivered 4,096 cars in the first and second quarters combined. That number leaves Ferrari well on its way to meeting its goal of selling around 8,000 cars by the end of the year.

The newly-released numbers are the first public financial reports from the Italian supercar maker since CEO and amateur sweater model Sergio Marchionne took the reigns in May. When he came on, Marchionne stressed that he wanted to push past Ferrari's previous production number of 7,000 cars per year. Following that, the company set a target of building 9,000 cars in 2019. Marchionne has also made it clear that he believes a bumped-up range of special edition models—like the LaFerrari Aperta—would help raise profits.

This business model of selling more cars and pushing expensive limited-edition vehicles (which, let's face it, is not exactly all that original) seems to be working for Ferrari so for. And while the company's push to sell more cars has raised questions as to whether its highly-valued aura of exclusivity could fade...if nothing else, we know Ferrari won't resort to building semi-attractive sporty SUVs like its sister brand Maserati.