Record-breaking year for Rolls-Royce cars as sales top 6,000 for first time in 118-year history

Rolls-Royce Motor Cars saw a record-breaking year in 2022, selling more than 6,000 cars for the first time in its 118-year history.

The luxury brand said it achieved “particularly strong year-on-year growth” during 2022 in the Middle East, Asia-Pacific, the USA and Europe, with the value of its Bespoke models also increasing as buyers splash out on personalisation of their cars.

The total 6,021 new car sales represent an 8% jump over 2021’s record-setting figures and the brand’s chief executive, Torsten Muller-Otvos, said the Goodwood-based marque was already seeing “exceptional” demand, with orders stretching far into 2023.

Those include existing models such as the Ghost and the best-selling Cullinan as well as Rolls-Royce’s first ever electric car, the Spectre, which is due to arrive in late 2023.

However, Muller-Otvos insisted that sales were not the brand’s only measure of success. He pointed to the rising value of Bespoke commissions as key to Roll-Royce’s success, with the average personalised car now costing around £440,000 (€500,000).

Muller-Otvos said that a “single digit” drop in sales in China, was counterbalanced by success elsewhere and hailed 2022 as a “momentous” year for the luxury car maker. He said: “Not only did we reveal Rolls-Royce Spectre, our marque’s first ever fully-electric series model to the world, it was also the first year we ever delivered more than 6,000 cars in a single 12-month period, with strong demand across our entire product portfolio.

“But as a true house of luxury, sales are not our sole measure of success: we are not and never will be a volume manufacturer. Bespoke is Rolls-Royce, and commissions were also at record levels last year, with our clients’ requests becoming ever more imaginative and technically demanding – a challenge we enthusiastically embrace.”

He added: “This success has not been achieved overnight. In 2023, we mark the 20th anniversary of the home of Rolls-Royce at Goodwood, during which time we’ve transformed our business through a long-term strategy based on continuous and sustainable growth, careful management and planning, an unwavering focus on profit and a respectful but forward-thinking reinvention of the Rolls-Royce brand.”

More than 150 jobs were created at the company’s headquarters in 2022, taking the site’s total workforce to 2,500.