Cryptowinter, inflation and a possible recession have not dampened the enthusiasm of wealthy car buyers for the Rolls-Royce. On the contrary, the high-end automaker posted record sales in 2022, making it clear that many people are still willing to spend half a million dollars on a name synonymous with luxury.
CNBC reports that the BMW-owned company “delivered 6,021 cars last year, 8% more than in 2021 and the first time the company has crossed the 6,000 mark.” The same article quotes Rolls CEO Torsten Muller-Otvos as saying his company “has not seen any slowdown or downturn. We haven’t seen any negative impact”.
While the CNBC article notes that Rolls-Royce opened “an invitation-only private office in Dubai” to serve its VIP customers, it reports that the United States was the largest marketplace for Rolls buyers in 2022. Thirty-five percent of the company’s sales of its vehicles over $500,000 came from US buyers, with China second for sales at 25%.
Here’s more about the company’s peak year:
The company’s SUV, the Cullinan, was the top seller in 2022 and accounted for about half of global sales, Muller-Otvos said. The Ghost model accounted for more than 30% of sales, while the Phantom accounted for about 10%.
Meanwhile, the carmaker’s biggest launch in 2022 was the Spectre, Rolls-Royce’s first electric vehicle and the start of its plan to go all-electric by 2030.
According to CNBC, 300 US customers had already pre-ordered the $413,000 Specter before Rolls-Royce unveiled the EV version of the rebooted model. Although Muller-Otvos indicated that orders continued to rise, he did not give actual figures.
The CEO also said that should a full-blown recession come, Rolls-Royce is protected from an economic downturn thanks to a sizeable order backlog that it will run throughout the year.
While he wasn’t ready to definitively declare another great year to come, Muller-Otvos sounded positive, saying he is “cautiously optimistic that we will deliver another strong year in 2023”.
