Explained: How Rolls-Royce Achieved A Recording Breaking 2021

Rolls Royce Motor Company has had its best quarter in its 117 year history. Fueled by the pandemic, the world’s wealthy have been snapping up its vehicles and filling the order books, setting sales records for the first quarter of 2021.

 Rolls-Royce delivered 1,380 cars in the first quarter of 2021, which is up 62% from the same quarter in 2020.  Demand is strong for its lineup but customers clearly desire the brand’s SUV, the Cullinan which starts from $335,000. The Ghost, the brand’s other luxury sedan other than the Phantom also received strong sales figures, starting from $332,000. Other luxury brands such as Bentley, and Lamborghini also recorded strong sales figures. Since the start of the pandemic, the world’s wealthy have gotten even wealthier during this period and so has their appetite for luxury goods and willingness to spend.

 In an online presentation, Rolls-Royce CEO Torsten Muller-Otvos said the carmaker sold 5,586 vehicles to customers in more than 50 countries, the largest number in the brand’s illustrious history, despite the volatility witnessed during the pandemic. In the luxury sector, the struggle for companies such as Rolls-Royce was not so much focused on attempting to find customers but rather, producing enough products to satisfy the huge customer demand.

 Sales figures peaked in most regions, including the Americans and China, two very important markets for the brand. Covid put restrictions on a lot of things including travel, therefore grounding people. For that reason, a lot of wealth accumulated and is spent on luxury goods, from which Rolls-Royce profited according to Rolls-Royce’s CEO. He also said that the carmaker’s British plant in Goodwood was running very close to maximum capacity and that its order books were full well into the third quarter of 2022. At the moment if you order a Rolls-Royce expect delivery in about a year from now, he said.

 At the beginning of 2019, there was a chip shortage that forced many vehicle manufacturers to halt production as they awaited supply. According to Muller-Otvos, while the chip shortage was cause for concern, Rolls-Royce parent company BMW assured them that they could take delivery of all the chips they needed to ensure continuous production of their vehicles.

 In the ultra-luxury and expensive class of vehicles, Rolls-Royce sits far above any other vehicle brand, as they have sold more cars for over $300,000 than any other brand. As Rolls-Royce looks to the future for its fully electric car, Specter, is due to be delivered in 2023 ahead of a move to stop production of combustion engines by 2030.

 Two years on and the pandemic shows no signs of slowing. The spending power of the rich also seems not to slow down, and as such Rolls-Royce has announced a coach-built service that will allow devotees of the brand to design their own bespoke one of a kind car over four years. According to Muller-Otvos, this will give them something money normally can’t buy.