A fuddy-duddy at 40-something: demand also driving down age of customers
The Chinese are buying Rolls-Royces at such a rate it has cut the average age of customers globally from 60-plus, to people in their late 40s.
Demand is so strong the company installed a credit card machine at the Shanghai motor show which opened yesterday -- to take deposits valued at hundreds of thousands of dollars for more than a dozen of the million-dollar-plus limousines.
In 2010, Rolls-Royce had its best year in the history of the company, selling 2711 vehicles globally. China alone was up by more than 600 per cent compared with the previous year.
Sales of Rolls-Royces in China are still roaring along in 2011 -- up 170 per cent in the first three months.
However, despite the sharp growth, China still trails North America as the biggest market for the super-luxury cars -- but is the second biggest market and accounts for more than a quarter of the British brand's volume.
Rolls-Royce spokesman Richard Carter told the Carsales Network the age demographic for the brand is "shifting quite dramatically" -- but the company was not about to release a line of sporty models.
"We don't use the word sporty," he said. "We do a dynamic drive, but sporty is not quite us."
Carter said Rolls-Royce was positioned to have another record year in 2011 but didn't expect China sales to continue to grow at their current pace.
"To be honest we don't think it's going to track that heavily for the rest of this year, but we will have another record year this year, we're confident of that," he said. "For us, China's not going to overtake North America yet."
But, he said, the growth is "phenomenal" -- and Rolls-Royce was seeing a new type of well-heeled customer.
"At this end of the market there is a huge amount of money in China.
And the interesting thing about the Chinese market is a lot of the money here is younger than it is elsewhere in the world," he said.
"So it's self made, it's not daddy's money or inherited money. It's self made entrepreneurs [aged] 30 to 35, owning two Rolls-Royces plus a number of other cars.
"Our whole age demographic is lowering, and that's not just a product of China by the way. The new Rolls-Royce Ghost has helped in other countries too, but here in China it's quite dramatically lower.
"A car like Ghost helps a lot because it appeals to a younger person, it isn't as formidable as the Phantom, it's a much more exciting drive and it appeals to younger buyers."
Rolls-Royce released the Ghost last year -- a slightly smaller and more affordable version of the Phantom.
In Australia, the Ghost costs $645,000 (plus on-roads) whereas the Phantom costs $1.068 million (plus on-roads).
Rolls-Royce sales in Australia are up by 25 per cent in the first three months of the year -- the company has sold five cars instead of four as it did in the first three months of 2010.
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