ROLLS-ROYCE Motor Cars’ chief executive officer said rising demand for personalised vehicles is helping the British luxury-car maker counter weakening sales in China.
The luxury market in the world’s second-largest economy “is experiencing some more challenging times,” CEO Chris Brownridge said on Wednesday (Sep 25). He added that the BMW-owned manufacturer can manage because of its flexibility and sales in other regions.
Rolls-Royce is seeing increasing demand for “bespoke and personal motor cars,” Brownridge said in an interview with Bloomberg Television. “Overall, we can balance our business really effectively.”
Manufacturers have been grappling with a pullback from once-flush shoppers in China, the biggest auto market and a key driver of global luxury spending. The country’s consumers have turned more price-sensitive in the face of an economic slowdown and property market crash.
Rolls-Royce also is dealing with the fallout from a BMW recall that’s expected to cost the group nearly 1 billion euros (S$1.4 billion). It affects around 600 of Rolls-Royce’s US$420,000 Spectre models in North America, the CEO said, adding that the company is fixing the electric vehicles as quickly as possible.
Rolls-Royce sold 6,032 vehicles last year, with the US and greater China its top markets.
China remains “very important” to Rolls-Royce because of a rising number of ultra-high net worth individuals there, the CEO said.
Brownridge spoke from Rolls-Royce’s new private office in New York City, which is aimed at serving the brand’s most well-heeled customers in that market. In the six months after opening a similar facility in Shanghai, Rolls-Royce engaged with more than 200 clients there, the CEO said. BLOOMBERG
