Millionaires only: Ferrari’s new supercar hits Singapore

How would you spend an extra million? In Singapore, there’s a new option.

Ferrari launched its latest 488 GTB supercar – touted as the new “benchmark” for the luxury sports car sector – in the wealthy city-state on Wednesday.

Powered by a new 3902 cc turbo engine, the car goes from zero to 100 kilometers per hour in three seconds. But speed comes at a price – a hefty one, too. The 488 GTB, carries an eye-watering price tag of 995,000 Singapore dollars ($734,507), excluding the cost of a Certificate of Entitlement (COE) – the 10-year license that drivers must purchase to use a private vehicle in the country.

Ferrari said the level of interest in the new supercar has been “quite high” thus far. The profile of Ferrari car owners tends to be males aged between 35 and 55, and in Singapore, multi-millionaires.

Millionaire status is not a prerequisite for all prospective Ferrari car owners, however.. The same vehicle costs just $242,737 in the U.S., the company’s largest market globally and $250,806 in Japan, its largest market in Asia.

The 488 GTB made its global debut at the International Premier of Geneva in March, and was launched in Asia a month later at the Shanghai Motor Show.Forty decades after the launch of its iconic first-ever mid-rear engined V8 berlinetta, the 308, the 488 GTB “opens a new chapter in the history of cars with this particular architecture,” Ferrari said.

“Credit for this achievement must go to the [car’s] revolutionary proprietary solutions which deliver a car at the top of its class in terms of power output,” with engine and command response times of just 0.8 and 0.6 seconds, respectively, it added.

HITC