1 best of : Porsche Makes $17,250 on Every Car It Sells

The Volkswagen Group returned to profitability in 2016 after a difficult year in 2015. And a good chunk of its success can be attributed to Porsche, which sold 238,000 vehicles last year and recorded an operating profit of $4.1 billion, up 14 percent from the previous year.

Based on these numbers, Porsche is on track to pocket $17,250 from every car it sells, Bloomberg points out in a recent article. This number puts Porsche way ahead of Daimler and BMW, which made roughly $5,000 per vehicle last year.

Porsche sits in a league of its own in the luxury car segment, selling fewer vehicles than BMW and Mercedes while not being obsessed with exclusivity like some other sports car makers. Accordingly, its profits sit in between the two camps. In comparison to Porsche, Ferrari’s operating profit per vehicle comes out to almost $90,000. While it makes just 8,000 cars a year, the automaker also receives money from amusement parks, engines, and Ferrari-branded accessories.

Compared to its operating profit per car, Porsche’s average revenue per vehicle is obviously much higher at around $99,000. And that’s easy to imagine when you pile on the options. On the Macan, which starts below $50,000, natural leather seats in “espresso” cost $4,920, and a custom paint job will set you back $6,520. The small SUV now accounts for about 40 percent of the brand’s sales.

Source: Bloomberg