Rolls-Royce suffered a dismal year in 2009 with sales down 17 percent, but the luxury automaker is on pace to nearly double its sales in 2010 – with an even more ambitious plan for the future.
During an interview at the Rolls-Royce headquarters in Goodwood, England, CEO Torsten Mueller-Oetvoes told Bloomberg that there is a strong chance for a third model in the near future, a model aimed at a lower price point than even the recently introduced Ghost.
The Rolls-Royce Ghost starts at $245,000, which may sound like a small fortune, but it is actually a fair amount cheaper than the range-topping Phantom, coming in at a pricey $380,000.
Now, Torsten says that the brand is looking to further improve its operating profit, and it believes the best way to do that is to tap the market somewhere between where the Ghost is currently positioned and BMW’s range-topping 7-Series.
“I’m quite confident that we’re going to see a Ghost derivative to come,” said Rolls-Royce CEO Torsten Mueller-Oetvoes. “There’s still a lot of potential in the market [for a less expensive model].”
Recent sales history recap
When BMW purchased Rolls-Royce for a bargain price of $70 million in 1998, the brand wasn’t particularly strong and had a very low volume. since acquiring the brand, BMW re-launched Rolls-Royce with a new factory in 2003, and recently has begun to enjoy strong growth. Prior to 2010, Rolls-Royce’s best year since the BMW takeover consisted of 1,212 sales in 2008, but so far this year the brand has already moved 1,467 units, and is on pace to break 2,000 units.
For some additional perspective, Rolls-Royce sold just 1,002 cars in 2009 – meaning the brand is on pace to double unit sales in a single year.
Growth is good, but too much is not
Although many automaker strive to ever increase their volume to higher and higher levels, Torsten also cautioned that although the brand is looking to expand beyond its current levels and market positioning, the brand realizes the importance of retaining exclusivity.
“We will definitely not end off in the tens of thousands of units,” said the Rolls-Royce CEO. “That’s not the right strategy for us. Rolls-Royce always needs to stay very exclusive. We only build a car when there is a customer behind it.”
References
1.’Rolls-Royce eyes expansion…’ view
