Everyone knows that the Bugatti Veyron is one of the most expensive cars to build and that VW loses a lot of money on each unit made. But while the Bugatti is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of losses per vehicle in Europe (€4,617,500 / $6,231,316), it is not the vehicle that inflicted the biggest loss on its company.
According to a research by brokerage firm Sanford C. Bernstein that was published by The Economist , the “honor” goes to the first generation Smart ForTwo , built between 1997 and 2006. The 749,000 units produced generated a loss of €3.35 billion ($4.52 billion) for parent company Daimler.
The main reason was that the automaker injected a huge amount of cash in the project, building a new dedicated plant, an all-new platform and 3-cylinder engines. As if that wasn’t enough, the Smart also failed to meet its sales targets by 40 percent. The maths show that Daimler lost €4,470 ($6,032) on each ForTwo it made.
Other vehicles, like the Fiat Stilo (2001-2009), simply failed to convince their target group of customers. The 769,000 units made were 70 percent less than Fiat’s estimates, bringing the company a huge loss of €2.10 billion ($2.83 billion), €2,730 ($3,685) per vehicle.
The top 3 is completed by the VW Phaeton , which is a rather different case as it was built simply to satisfy the personal whim of VW chairman Ferdinand Piech. Between 2001 and 2012, VW made 72,000 Phaetons and lost €28,100 ($37,910) on each of them. Total loss was €1.99 billion ($2.68 billion).
The top 10 of Europe’s biggest loss-making cars is completed by the Peugeot 1007 (€1.90 billion), first-generation Mercedes-Benz A-Class (€1.71 billion), Bugatti Veyron (€1.70 billion), Jaguar X-Type (€1.70 billion), third-generation Renault Laguna (€1.54 billion), Audi A2 (€1.33 billion) and Renault Vel Satis (€1.20 billion).
By Dan Mihalascu
Story References and Chart Credits: The Economist
