In an online presentation, Rolls-Royce CEO Torsten Müller-Ötvös said the automaker had sold 5,586 vehicles to customers in more than 50 countries, the most of its 117-year history despite all the volatility caused by the pandemic.
“In the luxury sector as a whole, the fight was not so much about finding customers, but rather on producing enough products to meet the huge customer demand,” said Müller-Ötvös.
He said sales hit all-time highs in most regions, including China and the Americas.
Sales of premium and luxury cars have grown more broadly in major global markets such as China and the United States, as travel restrictions linked to the pandemic have left wealthy consumers with more disposable income.
“Covid has forced a lot of people to go into hiding, not to travel and for this reason there is a lot of wealth being accumulated and being spent on luxury goods,” Müller-Ötvös told Reuters. “We took advantage of this development.
He said the automaker’s UK plant at Goodwood was running near full capacity and its order books were full until the third quarter of 2022.
“If you order a Rolls-Royce today, you expect to receive it in about a year,” he said.
British luxury carmaker Bentley, a unit of Volkswagen AG, said last week it hit a record year in 2021, as global sales jumped 31% amid strong demand for premium vehicles.
BMW last week said it achieved record sales of more than 2.2 million vehicles of its BMW brand in 2021, surpassing 2019 sales despite a global shortage of semiconductor chips.
Müller-Ötvös said that while the chip shortage was of concern, Rolls-Royce parent company BMW had “assured us that we could take delivery of all the chips we need to build our cars, we didn’t therefore found no shortage “.
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