Just six months into 2016 and Ferrari is already well on its way to breaking the sales record it set just last year. In 2015 the automaker moved 7,664 cars. In the first six months of 2016 a total of 4,096 cars have been sold, putting the Italian automaker well on track to beat its own projection of 7,900 sales in 2016. This also means the company is well within striking distance of CEO Sergio Marchionne's goal for the company. That would be 9,000 sales per year by 2019. That's a lot more Ferraris on the road, which is a good thing, right?

Well, the answer to that question varies by who you ask. Fans of the brand may cry foul but FCA, which owns 80% of Ferrari, is seeing dollar signs. Ferrari is estimating net revenues for 2016 at 3 billion euros, or $3.36 billion for us Americans who don't trade in European funny money. In terms of numbers by area, the EMEA region (Europe, Middle East and Africa) accounted for the most sales so far with 1,903 units. The Americas came in second at 1,297. Further underscoring the importance of the Chinese market is the fact that it accounted for a whopping 316 sales on its own, a 21% increase from the first six months of 2015. Is it only a matter of time before the demand of the Chinese market influence Ferrari's overall strategy?

We won't try and answer that question now because we don't expect Ferrari to shift course whatsoever until after 2019. Once it hits that 9,000 car/year mark then the company will have a difficult decision to make regarding how to grow while ensuring that its cars keep an aura of exclusivity. In the short term it'll be intriguing to see how Ferrari's biggest competitor, Lamborghini, reacts to these surging sales numbers. The supercar company is already on pace to sell 4,000 cars in 2016, and that's without the aid of the upcoming Urus SUV. Lamborghini thinks that its Urus SUV could sell 3,000 units annually, a number which would help close the sales gap between it and Ferrari.

However, much like FCA we think the Volkswagen Group may start seeing dollar signs. Said signs could push production up even further. Volkswagen is committed to EVs after Dieselgate, and paying for the development of the former and the fines from the latter won't be cheap. What better way to add cash to the coffers than by pumping out a couple thousand more Lamborghinis?