Carmakers turned bigger profits last year, but who was the winner? Most and least profitable car companies including GWM, Toyota and Ferrari revealed - report

Ever wondered which car brand is the most profitable? No prizes for guessing Ferrari holds the number one spot as its revenue is bolstered through merchandise and brand activities, but what of the others?

According to data organised by industry analyst Felipe Muñoz (@carindustryanalysis), carmakers made more money per vehicle in 2023 than 2022, posting an average of 18 per cent in revenue increases. 

Headed by Ferrari and Porsche with Toyota firmly in the top third, some of the names elsewhere in the list – including GWM and Jaguar Land-Rover (JLR) – may surprise you.

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The calculation for how much money each company makes per car is a fairly simple equation, taking public operating profits from 2023 divided by total sales.

Interestingly, there was sales growth of about 9.0 per cent last year, revenue swelled by 11 per cent bringing the average operating margin from 7.8 to 8.4 per cent for the 24 carmakers surveyed.

The data showed higher prices of cars contributed to increased profits for car makers, with Volkswagen (up 15 per cent), Toyota (up 11 per cent) and Stellantis (up 6.0 per cent).

Tesla may have delivered plenty of cars in 2023 but it did so at a lower margin than the year prior.

Tesla was a clear exception, its profits fell by 36 per cent in 2023 despite revenue up 15 per cent and deliveries a staggering 38 per cent. Tesla delivered a greater number of cars at a lower price, dropping its operating margin to 9.2 per cent.

Ferrari and Porsche, on the other hand, were all up in 2023. In the Italian marque’s case, the Purosangue likely helped it increase its standing with the numbers suggesting it profited $190,000 (EUR118,000) per car sold. This puts Porsche’s still-impressive 18 per cent operating margin in perspective. 

Toyota (in this data include Hino, Daihatsu Lexus) sold the most cars and made a handsome 11.11 per cent per car profit doing so. Chalk this up to its huge product catalogue and global availability. Notably, Toyota is one of very few OEMs with a large share of electric car sales, totalling 0.9 per cent of its global deliveries.

Toyota – and its subsidiaries – posted strong profits in 2023 potentially helped by utes and combustion-engined SUVs.

As you might expect, BMW, Kia and Mercedes-Benz all joined Toyota with more than 11 per cent profit per car sold. A little more surprising were the Stellantis (11.8 per cent) and JLR (11 per cent) groups, which both improved profitability significantly in 2023. 

Meanwhile, BYD and GWM are examples of marques engaged in price wars. Their market shares have increased significantly yet the brands profit of 6.3 per cent and 1.6 per cent, respectively, fell a long way short of European rivals.

The dataset did not include all Chinese carmakers (SAIC and Chery, to name but two) as they produce other brands' cars under licence and others have not published their results.

Chinese EV makers boomed for volume in 2023.

Ford was another carmaker that posted fairly low profit last year, making 3.1 per cent on each vehicle sold. 

Carmakers by profitability in 2023, source: @Carindustryanalysis