The original Porsche Cayenne is in part responsible for the birth of the dedicated sports SUV, having spurred its maker on to new heights after years of financial difficulty.
In fact, despite having been met with ire upon its reveal nearly 20 years ago, the Mk1 Cayenne would go on to average a hair under 35,000 sales annually – some 10,000 more than even Porsche predicted.
By the end of its eight-year run, the company had managed to shift 276,652 examples.
Today, the combined sales of the Cayenne and its smaller sibling, the Macan (79,536 units in the first half of 2022), are more than 3.5 times higher than those of the 911 (21,616) - a tangible sign that insatiable market demand for SUVs extends even into the specialist sports car sphere.
Following in Porsche’s footsteps, several other traditional sporting and luxury firms have diversified into SUVs - often to great effect, and Ferrari will be hoping for similar success from its new V12-engined Purosangue SUV. Here are the examples it can follow:
Bentley Bentayga
The British firm beat most of its rivals to the punch with the Bentayga in 2016, and it proved a near-instant hit. The following year, it accounted for 39.5% of Bentley’s international sales. Of the 7398 cars sold in Bentley’s record-shattering first half of 2022, 40% were Bentaygas.
When Bentley broke its annual profit record in the first half of 2022 alone, the Bentayga was its biggest seller. It claimed 40% (2960) of the firm’s 7398 sales, whereas the Continental GT and Flying Spur recorded 2441 and 1997 respectively.
Now an extended-wheelbase Bentayga is poised to become the brand’s flagship - picking up where the old Mulsanne limousine left off.
However, the Bentayga isn’t necessarily a super-SUV, more a reserved luxury SUV with titanic performance.
Lamborghini Urus
The 641bhp Urus was arguably the first proper modern super-SUV, as well as one of the most successful.
It’s already the firm’s most-produced car of all time - the 20,000th example having left the Sant’Agata gates in June. And in Lamborghini’s also record-setting first half of 2022, it accounted for a staggering 61% of the company’s 5090 worldwide deliveries.
An upgraded Performante version is on the way, with deliveries beginning in December.
Aston Martin DBX
The new DBX accounted for 40% (1083 units) of Aston Martin's 2676 global sales in the first half of this year, but the company still posted a loss of £285.4 million. This was partly because nearly 350 examples of the even hotter 707 version – expected to account for 60% of DBX sales, ultimately – were delayed in production, victims of the semiconductor shortage.
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