Cost to develop/build modern cars
 

Does anyone know the rough cost breakdown to build a moden car. i.e. how much is R&D, how much are raw materials, how much is manufacturing, how much is factory costs, how much is marketing etc.

Obviously economies of scale factors in so some examples would be good of cost over the lifetime of a model (most I guess will be 7 years or so)

e.g. a £10k Ford focus might be
£3000 Manufacturing/factory costs
£3000 raw materials
£2000 R&D
£1000 marketing
£500 other
£500 profit

Bascially I'm after the actual numbers instead of the ones I put above which are complete guesswork and prolly miles off. :D

A few representative example cars would be good (e.g. focus, golf, impreza, 911, jag, smart etc.)

ta muchly.

if a car costs 10g, then basically, its being built at a cost of about a fiver.

When the Focus came out I was studying a Mechanical Design degree and we were given the breakdown of costs, etc.

Unfortunately the only figure I remember is that the profit to Ford for a range topping Ghia model was just under 700 quid.

HTH

Ray

From my recollection of Ford 5-6 years ago, a Fiesta was costing us $5000 in labour & materials. This excludes warranties, taxes/duties, tooling costs, overheads, R&D, advertidsing, dealer support ....

We lost money on every car sold, and I'm not sure things have improved since.

In the recesses of my memory, I read something about 20 years ago that said that the cost of labour and materials didn't vary all that much with the size of the car. So, a Fiesta and a Granada cost pretty much the same to build. One sold for £4000 and the other for £14000, so the profit on a Grandad should be higher.

I guess that the equation isn't as simple as that when you take into account the numbers of each being built, the need to keep a production line running at full volume, etc..

As for Marketing costs, more recently I read that before the Alfa 156 was introduced, if you took Alfa's total advertising spend in the UK and divided it by the number of cars sold, it was costing them £600 for each Alfa sold.

Don't know that this actually helps you though:)

Doug

Doug, thats correct - it was the president of Ford - he said that the price to him to build a Granada was the same (to all intents and purposes) as the price to build a Fiesta .................... the profit was different on each car (but he sold far fewer Granadas than Fiestas!)

Pete

I'm currently on my fourth Fiesta, I've never owned a Granada...

:D:D

From design to job 1 (vehicle being produced in plant)

average cost £2000000

the factors then start to play

current Ford focus

launched 1998/9 design & dev work started 1996

face lift every quarter!!

vehicle life 5 years end/ 09 04- 03/05 approx 1000000 cars produced

spares capacity 10 years from last car off production line

to give you an idea of individual costs

seat belt set for a ford escort

thats 4 3 point belts, and 1 lap belt..

each belt costs approc £ 40 from the main dealer ford buys a whole set (5)

for £7 !!!

from design to launch of an individual component can use in excess of 30 people!!

the hours & cost are awsome!!


Mart

And the price that the manufacturer pays for seat belts for the top of the range model is presumably the same - or very similar? Same goes for most components?

No the costs are factored for the job..

a seat belt set for a ford is approx £7 per set

AsTon Martin were payed approx £50 per belt they resold for approx £180!!

most oems use cross platform or carryover parts its more ecconomical

mart