Inside a Tesla. — Image by © Tim Sandle
In light of Ferrari’s recordbreaking revenues for 2024 and its positive forecast for the next fiscal year (despite Trump’s problematic tariffs), the firm is also set to generate the highest revenue and net profit per employee from among the main players within the automotive sector.
Ferrari: Revving up success?
Ferrari recently made headlines with the unveiling of its new 296 Speciale hybrid models, priced at €407,000 for the coupe and €462,000 for the convertible in Italy, with U.S. prices expected to be higher due to tariffs. However, the luxury sports car maker is expecting an EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation) of at least €2.68 billion ($3.04 billion) and EBITDA margin of 38.3% or more.
Highlighting Ferrari’s success, a review by the market firm BestBrokers explores the automotive industry’s net profit per employee for the 2024 fiscal year.
According to their calculations, Ferrari generates $291,403 in net profit per employee, nearly 3.5 times more than Toyota, 5 times more than Tesla, and a staggering 48 times more than BYD. In 2024, Ferrari generated recordbreaking earnings, achieved a 21% increase in net profit, and exceeded all annual targets.
Ferrari & $180,303 per hour
In 2024, Ferrari sold over 13,752 units and generated a recordbreaking profit of $1.58 billion (€1.52 billion), over 21% more than it generated in 2023 (€1.26 billion). With its 5,435 employees, it makes $291,403 of net profit per employee. Moreover, Ferrari generates $1 million in net profit every 5 hours, equating to $180,303 per hour and $4,327,262 per day.
Toyota
Toyota ranks second in net profit per employee, generating $85,268 per capita, despite its significantly larger annual net profit of $32.47 billion for the fiscal year 2024. This performance is due to its workforce of 380,793 employees, which is over 70 times larger than Ferrari’s.
Tesla
Tesla earns 5 times less in profit per employee than Ferrari, ranking third with $56,428, followed by O’Reilly Automotive with $25,650 per employee.
BYD
The Chinese company BYD ranks last with just $6,123 of net profit per employee, 48 times less than Ferrari, despite having a significantly larger annual net profit than both Ferrari and O’Reilly Automotive.
Efficiency ratings
Toyota leads the automotive sector in time efficiency, generating $1 million in net profit every 16 minutes and 14 seconds. Tesla follows in second place, taking 1 hour and 14 minutes, while BYD ranks third with 1 hour and 35 minutes.
Ferrari’s net profit per employee surpasses Tesla’s by 3.5 times, despite both companies focusing on innovation. This high profit per employee is a direct result of Ferrari’s strategy, which emphasises exclusivity, premium pricing, and a small workforce. The larger workforce and higher annual profits of companies like BYD highlight that scale does not always guarantee efficiency or profitability.
Winners and strugglers
The figures from the report show that even larger companies like Tesla struggle to match the efficiency of smaller, more specialised firms like Ferrari. However, despite generating less profit per employee, companies like Toyota excel at generating the most revenue in the shortest amount of time, raising the question of which metric is more significant: the time needed to generate profit or the profit achieved per employee.
More detailed information about the most successful companies by revenue and net income per employee is available in the full report. It also includes the full methodology behind these findings. Feel free to use any data or graphics for publication by providing a proper link attribution to the original report.
