A $10 Billion Car? The Trend Towards Hyper-personalized Cars is Gaining Momentum

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Ferrari NV CEO Benedetto Vigna hopes to one day sell a $10 billion car. He’s joking, but it’s an idea based on a real industry phenomenon: super-rich customers willing to pay exorbitant prices to build their own unique supercar.

“It’s a dream… but that would be the extreme of luxury,” he said.

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Until recently, options for personalizing cars like a new Rolls-Royce, Bentley or Aston Martin were limited to decisions such as paint color and type of upholstery and wheels.

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Over the last five years, that has changed: wealthy buyers are willing to spend increasingly large amounts to customize their new car, sometimes even choosing to redesign the entire vehicle themselves.

“If you look at Bentley 20 years ago, you picked your color, the leather and the wheels and everyone was happy,” said Adrian Hallmark, the former Bentley Motors Ltd. chief executive who moved to Aston Martin Lagonda Global Holdings PLC as boss changes managing director this year. “Now you can’t get away with this. The demand (for customization) is huge, and perhaps that’s because people are able to express their own aesthetics and preferences.”

This hyper-personalization boom is a key factor in increasing the profitability of brands like Ferrari and Bentley, which are owned by Volkswagen AG and can meet the demands of big donors.

Last year, Ferrari was so profitable that it raised its forecasts every quarter and posted a record annual profit of 1.26 billion euros, of which around 460 million euros came from higher prices due to customization.

Bentley, meanwhile, has seen profits rise almost tenfold since 2019 to 589 million euros last year, thanks to what the company called “staggering” spending on customization.

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Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Ltd., BMW’s luxury brand, has set up a dedicated department for personalized features. As a result, the cost of the car, which has starting prices ranging from £270,000 to over £500,000, regularly rises to over a million pounds.

One of the most popular Rolls-Royce features is a night sky scene made of tiny dimmable fiber optic lights installed in the car’s roof, allowing for chauffeur-controlled stargazing. However, some customers want a more personal night view.

One wanted an embroidery depicting the lunar surface with craters. According to Rolls-Royce, there were at least 250,000 individual stitches surrounded by 1,183 fiberglass “stars.” Another couple in Shanghai had a constellation created based on their young daughter and had an image of her footprints incorporated into the car’s white dashboard.

Bespoke orders have reached “record levels…both in volume and value,” said Rolls-Royce boss Chris Brownridge. Customization is often labor-intensive, but still brings car manufacturers significantly higher margins.

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Some customers have specific requests so that the exterior of the car matches the personalized interior.

There are legendary industry stories about paint colors, from the McLaren Automotive Ltd. team sent to a Swiss chalet to capture the exact shade of sunrise in the snow to the engineer who took the train to the Bentley factory in Crewe, England, returned His nails painted the customer’s desired shade of pink.

One of the latest trends is carbon fiber panels and accessories. As a material, it is strong, light and very expensive. Used unpainted, its surface catches the light at different angles, creating a shimmering effect.

“Our customers are interested in it because it’s light but also beautiful,” Vigna said.

A carbon finish on both the inside and outside is another way to add a personal touch to the vehicle, he said, adding that Ferrari was surprised by the popularity of this particular option last year.

The company will have to make changes to its supply chain to meet demand, he said, adding that this would have been unthinkable five years ago.

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That’s a dream… but that would be the extreme of luxury

Benedetto Vigna

A Bentley buyer last year spent €400,000 replacing large parts of the body with carbon fiber, so much so that he doubled the price.

Another asked to use wood from his own forest for the interior of his new Bentley, a project that ultimately fetched the prize of over two million euros.

At Ferrari, some customers even sit down with designers with a “base” vehicle – like the €375,000 SF90 – and develop completely new body styles. A client from a US technology company was studying aerodynamics and decided to draw his own vehicle, manufactured by Ferrari.

The company said it produces “a few” sports cars like this each year, where customers create their own design based on an existing model. The price is “several million.”

One question is why people have become fixated on expensive customizations.

By investing in supply chains and dedicated teams, car manufacturers can better meet these demands. But there’s something else at work: Several executives say the trend has become more pronounced since the pandemic.

“COVID has left a clear message – they call it a YOLO effect,” Vigna said. “In Italy we say Carpe Diem. You make money, you can make good investments in stocks, bonds, real estate, but your lifespan is limited, so you have fun too.”

© 2024 The Financial Times Ltd.

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