Times of uncertainty and overall luxury market slowdown as highlighted in previous articles have brought difficulties to several brands in the segment. However, regardless of current and recent success or struggles, trends in brand, diversification, and marketing strategies have changed significantly.
Driven by various factors for different brands, whether one calls it a more cautious approach or a focused one, after quite a few years of expansion and diversification, most OEMs in the segment seem to be pulling back on both product and marketing strategies.
Diversification
While quite a few brands in the segment had diversified quite aggressively in the past, some of these strategies have gradually changed. One of the best examples of this is Aston Martin. As discussed in a previous article (Not just Luxury Cars: Aston Martin Diversification Strategy), through the 2010s the British automaker started several partnerships and diverse activities that materialized in several limited products and concepts including the likes of bicycles, speedboats, real estate, and even submarines and aircrafts. The latest of these projects is probably the motorcycle AMB 001 developed along with British motorcycle manufacturer Brough Superior and introduced in 2020 for a limited run of 100 units sold for around £100,000.
*Aston Martin AMB 001
But Aston Martin is not the only one. Some of these activities continue and will most likely continue in the future. The collaboration with video game developers is by now one of the most established strategies in the industry in which every automaker takes part and that has even expanded in the last few years beyond just racing games.
Others however could have been a phase or one-offs to look for new opportunities or business models but seem to have been completely abandoned.
Real estate projects have been relatively popular for a while among luxury automakers, with the likes of Bugatti, Porsche, Pininfarina, and Bentley (as well as the just-mentioned Aston Martin) and more all entering partnerships with high-end developers for residential buildings in selected areas such as Dubai or Miami. These have recently slowed down or almost disappeared.
Similarly, various OEMs have also reduced the release of branded merchandise like Ferrari removing a significant share of everyday objects and accessories, or Bentley not following up on its collaboration with Fanatec for driving simulators steering wheels.
Product trends
On the product side, a key trend that seemed destined to get stronger in the coming years, but that, at least for now, has almost completely stopped is the production of one-offs.
An initiative that in the era of high customisation represented the absolute top of luxury automotive tailoring. Something that Ferrari has been doing for the past 20 years now, and that over the last 8 or 9 has been consistently growing with more OEMs developing similar initiatives year after year. This went on up until 2023, to almost completely stop in 2024.
Yearly One-Off and Few-Off production by Brand (2006-2023)
A similar result would be displayed if few-offs were included. 2024 saw only a few releases and only some were very limited (below 100 units) and presented significant updates compared to the “regular models” like the Lamborghini Huracán STJ released in only 10 units to celebrate the end of the model’s lifecycle.
It is still unclear whether this is just a casual slowdown, while the automakers continue developing their own personalisation programs, but the slowdown is certainly noteworthy.
On the product side, 2025 so far has also seen a substantial slowdown in the release of production models, with only 2 major releases by an established automaker consisting of Aston Martin’s convertible versions of its new Vantage and Vanquish models. This is certainly not only due to strategic changes, as over the last 5-6 years, most established brands released entirely new product lines that in this market tend to last between 5-10 years, sometimes without any significant mid-life refresh. That said, uncertainty with electrification in the luxury segment and other factors have certainly played a role too, and overall the release rate over the first 4 months of 2025 represents an average 71% slowdown compared to the previous 6 years.
Reversing Course on Electrification
As just mentioned this is probably one of the biggest factors of instability in the current market. As the electric vehicle market started developing legacy OEMs and luxury brands started working on the development of luxury EVs. But things did not go according to plan.
Porsche was among the first and its Taycan has been one of the fastest depreciating vehicles on the market reaching a -51% in just 4 years, with over 30% over just one.
Similarly, other OEMs that launched electric supercars or hypercars have struggled to sell out even extremely limited runs. It has been the case for the likes of Pininfarina and Rimac too which has been at the forefront of this transition right from the start. However, since the beginning, even Rimac’s CEO Mate Rimac has been quoted saying that customers in this segment simply do not want full-electric vehicles, which will likely force the brand to introduce hybrid powertrains facilitated by its joint venture with Bugatti. Aston Martin too has currently delayed its first EV.
As traditional strategies have not worked as expected, OEMs had to rethink or expand their plans. Ferrari, set to release the first fully-electric vehicle in 2025, is likely to introduce a unique vision for it as discussed in a previous article (New Luxury Automotive: Going Beyond Performance?).
*Porsche Macan EV
Porsche while still struggling in selling its GT Taycan, despite the mid-cycle refresh which brought several improvements, seems to have found a solution to successfully build its EV portfolio. In 2025, 25.9% of the vehicles sold were EVs, led by the recently introduced Macan EV SUV. Over the first 3 months of the year, the SUV sales grew by 14% to 23,555 units sold. Of these over 60% (14,185) were full-electric ones, confirming a certain appetite for comfortable and sporty family luxury vehicles rather than exclusively performance ones.
This trend is surely going to reflect on the marketing and product strategies of luxury OEMs preserving their strong identity instead of exclusively focusing on what the future holds for the industry, which in turn could also give them competitive advantages against upcoming competitors.
Refocusing on motorsport
Beyond Formula 1 which has been skyrocketing in popularity over the last few years, endurance is certainly getting more attention and become a key marketing tool for most legacy luxury performance brands.
Following Porsche and Ferrari, most other brands followed in rapid succession. Lamborghini announced its LMDh participation with the SC63, Aston Martin confirmed its entrance in the LMH category in 2025 with a racing version of its Valkyrie. Last but not least McLaren too announced they will be participating in the FIA endurance championship from 2027.
Conclusions
Luxury automakers’ marketing and programs’ expansion slowed down over the past 1-2 years following difficulties in the industry for several brands driven by a general slowdown in automotive and in the larger luxury sector, along with changing trends in consumer preferences.
Where for a while it seemed like most companies were more and more frequently trying new strategies, these have ultimately been decreasing with automakers refocusing on core values, legacy products, and (when relevant) motorsport.
One exception however is coming from Ferrari. After the pull-back in diversification and the claim of wanting to become “a luxury brand”, a few days ago Chairman John Elkann announced a new project for a Ferrari sailboat coming soon. While the sailing segment is not exempt from crossovers with the luxury automotive one, this seems like it could be a larger project with a bigger commitment that will be discussed in future articles.