German Performance Cars Battling for Wealthy Wallets

The ongoing performance battle among AudiAudiGermany, 1909 > present83 models
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, BMWBMWGermany, 1918 > present87 models
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, Mercedes-BenzMercedes-BenzGermany, 1924 > present197 models
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has been going on for decades. Each automaker tries to outdo the others with more powerful, higher performance models. However, the importance of these high performance cars has ratcheted up recently as automakers have learned that they get can the highest sales margins in their lineups on their highest performance models.

While globally, Audi RS, BMW M and Mercedes AMGAMGGermany, 1966 > present17 models
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models will account for only about 70,000 sales, they have an average transaction price of between €100,000 and €150,000, and the profit margins on them are even higher than luxury cars and SUVs.

"We want [AMG] to over-proportionally contribute to Mercedes's profitability, that means we have a higher return than normal Mercedes models," said former AMG CEO Ola Källenius who just took over as head of global sales at Mercedes.

Solid sales of high performance cars are not going to keep any of these automakers in business, but they will provide some extra money that might have been lost in other market segments.

There are two keys to success in the high performance car market – performance, obviously, and constant innovation. Performance of these cars is often established through racing. All three companies race against one another in the DTM and have separate racing ventures worldwide.

The other key is making sure each new car does something that its competitors do not.

"We also want to reduce weight and bring to the market one to three special innovations in every new car we launch," said Friedrich Nitschke, president of BMW M GmbH.

Among the performance sub-brands, AMG has the biggest desires for the future. It wants to go from selling 20,000 cars in 2012 to 30,000 in 2017, and to do that it plans to offer 30 AMG models by 2017.

Audi’s RS division has the most room to grow because until the last two years, its variants had been sold only sparingly outside of Europe. It plans to launch the RS7Audi RS7 SportbackGermany, 2013 > present4 photos
in China and the US and wants to give the name more awareness there.

As with any discussion of European automakers, the topic of efficiency and emissions eventually raises its head. These high performance cars are not immune from the EU’s falling emissions limits. No automaker has found a solution yet, but they are trying. BMW has launched its M Performance diesel models that use three-turbochargers to increase power. AMG is offering the electric version of the SLS AMGMercedes-Benz SLS AMG Cou...Germany, 2013 > present5 photos
with 740hp. Audi experimented with an EV version of the R8Audi R8 e-tronGermany, 2011 > present3 photos
before dropping the plan, and its latest sports car concept, the Sport Quattro, used a hybrid for extra power.

Source: Automotive News Europe