Ferrari's Marchionne called out Tesla for making customers wait for cars (race, tsla, fcau)
Ferrari started trading on Wednesday on the New York Stock Exchange, under the ticker symbol RACE.
Fiat Chrysler Automobiles CEO — and Ferrari Chairman — Sergio Marchionne went on CNBC at the NYSE to talk about the IPO.
In order for Ferrari to grow and reward investors, it's going to have to build more cars that it currently does — around 7,000 a year.
Marchionne believes that high-net-worth people will be customers for the additional Ferraris that the company makes in the future. And he thinks some wealthy potential customers are currently buying the wrong cars.
"They're buying cars that are not at par with a Ferrari," he said.
And when asked about what those folks are buying now, he got in a not-so-subtle dig at Tesla.
"I'm not going to make derogatory remarks about the competition, but if you have to wait over 12 months to get a car, people have a tendency in some cases to go someplace else," he said.
Tesla has taken deposits for Model S and Model X vehicles, but at times struggled to deliver those vehicles in a timely manner.
Of course, this doesn't seem to have affected demand for Teslas. Elon Musk's electric car startups figures it will take all of 2016 to fulfill existing orders for the Model X SUV — assuming those buyers don't change their minds and decide to go with a Ferrari instead.
Tesla shares took a big hit on Tuesday when Consumer Reports pulled it recommend rating for the Model S, citing reliability issues reported by owners in an annual survey. On Wednesday, Tesla stock was down slightly, to $212.
Ferrari, meanwhile, was up 11% to $57 from its IPO offering price of $52, after starting the day up 15% at $60.
It's worth pointing out that the most expensive Tesla, the Model S P90D is at about $130,000 still $70,ooo less expensive than the entry level Ferrari, the $200,000 California T. And Musk has repeatedly stated that Tesla has been avoiding tapping into excess demand for its cars specifically so it doesn't make customers wait.
Watch Marchionne on CNBC below:
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