Most established performance- and luxury-car brands make distinctive claims, generally focused on individual luxury, performance, or both. They highlight uniqueness, exclusivity, prestige, craftsmanship, artistry, and the extraordinary—traditional sports/luxury brand identifiers. To stand apart from these legacy brands—some of which have existed for a hundred years or more—newcomer marques focus heavily on the differentiating power of technology. They promote this difference not only to enhance the ownership experience but also to address social concerns such as the transition to sustainable energy.

Moving toward individualized content

The change has begun, with some mainstream luxury OEMs already moving toward DTC or own-retail models. In doing so, various options exist. For example, a few European incumbent OEMs favor the agency model, where sales agents operate on commission under the strong control of the automaker, which sets prices and makes point-of-sale investments. Some EV specialists and niche incumbents choose outright retail network ownership (where allowed). They sell directly online or through their physical stores and thus own the complete customer experience. These OEMs establish DTC capabilities and distribution systems, which can include build-to-order approaches. The ecosystem model represents a unique go-to-market approach where the OEM splits distribution activities into specific tasks such as vehicle configuration, test drives, sales, and delivery and assigns different partners for each task. The OEM thus avoids the cost of owning and operating each task itself while coordinating and controlling the entire distribution system. There are also selected luxury OEMs that have decided to remain and optimize the existing wholesale approach. Especially for established OEMs, the go-to-market approach needs to be backed by solid and comprehensive data analysis.