Rolls-Royce annual sales top 6,000 for first time

Luxury car maker sees strong growth in Middle East, Europe, Asia and US

The all-electric Rolls-Royce Spectre has been unveiled on the world stage. All photos: Rolls-Royce

The Spectre displays what Rolls-Royce calls its 'indulgent proportions'.

Rolls-Royce says the Spectre's design takes in haute couture, modernist sculpture and contemporary art.

Han Solo might be at home in there.

That's about as near to water as the Spectre should probably go.

It's all very modern, but the Spectre maintains some of the brand's old-school stylings.

The Spectre's speaker set up.

Step inside ...

An early design sketch.

A Rolls-Royce emblem on the tail light.

The Spectre's starlight ceiling.

The Rolls-Royce symbol on the Spectre's wheels.

Looking out from the centre console.

The Spectre badge.

The Spectre is being posited as the first 'ultra-luxury electric super coupe'.

You'd know the Spectre was a Rolls-Royce just by looking at the tail light.

The ever-present Spirit of Ecstasy figurine.

A dusky spectacle.

Straight from the drawing board.

Clean lines on the dashboard and steering wheel.

The car has all the stylings of a classic grand tourer.

An early shot of the Rolls-Royce Spectre, as teased by the company in September 2021.

They weren't giving much away.

Rolls-Royce sold more than 6,000 cars in 2022, passing the milestone for the first time in the UK-based company's 118-year history.

The luxury car maker said it achieved “particularly strong year-on-year growth” in the Middle East, Asia-Pacific, the US and Europe.

The company delivered 6,021 vehicles to customers, an 8 per cent rise on 2021.

“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,” said chief executive Torsten Muller-Otvos.

Economic headwinds in China

“Continuing headwinds” caused a slight drop in sales in China, the BMW-owned car manufacturer said. However, demand remained strong, with advanced orders “secured far into 2023".

Bespoke commissions also reached record levels last year, with customers willing to pay £440,000 for a unique and personalised car.

Mr Muller-Otvos said the requests of clients became “ever more imaginative and technically demanding”.

More than 150 jobs were created at the company's headquarters at Goodwood in West Sussex, bringing the total workforce to 2,500.

A marque of success

Rolls-Royce was formed in 1905, a year after Charles Rolls met Sir Henry Royce. By 1907, the Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost was promoted as the best car in the world, after it was put through a series of endurance and comfort tests.

By the 1950s Roll-Royce cars had replaced Daimler as the preferred motor car supplier to Britain's royal family. A survey in 1987 showed that the name Rolls-Royce had become synonymous with luxury and that only Coca-Cola was a more widely recognised brand across the world.

To the casual observer, the name, the brand and the Spirit of Ecstasy hood ornament have been part of Rolls-Royce for its whole 118-year history.

However, there were some interesting twists in the history.

Rolls-Royce through the years - in pictures

A 20-horsepower Rolls-Royce in 1905. In the back seat is Charles Stewart Rolls, who co-founded the company with Henry Royce a year earlier. All photos: Getty Images

English car manufacturer Charles Stewart Rolls was also an aviation pioneer.

The company's co-founder was English engineer Sir Frederick Henry Royce.

American actress Corinne Griffith dressed as the 'Spirit of Ecstasy', the emblem seen on the bonnet of Rolls-Royce cars, in 1925.

Hollywood film star Mae Murray and her Rolls-Royce 1929.

A Rolls-Royce on the race track at Brooklands, Surrey, in 1929.

A Rolls-Royce outside the Royal Academy's Burlington House in London in 1931.

A Rolls-Royce Silver Dawn on the assembly line at the company's wfactory in Crewe, Cheshire, in 1950.

US President Eisenhower and UK Prime Minister Harold Macmillan sitting in the back of a Rolls Royce in London in 1959.

Actress Zsa Zsa Gabor about to get into a Rolls-Royce outside the Hilton Hotel, London, in 1964.

The launch of the Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow in 1965.

A doorman salutes a guest arriving at the Hilton Hotel, London, in a Rolls Royce in 1965.

A Rolls-Royce on display at the Motor Show in Earls Court, London, in 1965.

John Lennon's Rolls Royce, decorated with signs of the zodiac and bunches of flowers, in Chertsey, Surrey in 1967.

A modified Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow in pre-rally trials in Shropshire, in 1970.

American singer Marvin Gaye walking ahead of his Rolls Royce in Notting Hill, London, in 1976.

The new Rolls-Royce Phantom makes its debut in 2003.

A Rolls-Royce Phantom Drophead convertible on display at the International Motor Show in Geneva, Switzerland, in 2007.

The Rolls Royce Phantom VI used to carry Queen Elizabeth II is loaded on to a truck after her departure from Australia in 2006.

A vintage Rolls-Royce drives through London in 2011, during a parade celebrating the 100th anniversary of the 'Spirit of Ecstasy' emblem.

A Rolls Royce 102 EX at the Geneva International Motor Show in Switzerland in 2011.

A Rolls-Royce at the Dubai Airshow in 2013.

A Rolls-Royce Wraith at the Geneva International Motor Show in 2019.

In the early 1970s the original Rolls-Royce company was nationalised and the then British government sold the car marking arm, to allow the main firm to concentrate on making aero engines.

The car maker was bought by the engineering company Vickers in the 1980s, which decided to sell it in 1998. A bid of £340 million by the German automaker, BMW, was trumped by a rival offer from Volkswagen of £430 million.

However, while VW got the production facilities, the vehicle designs, the rights to the Spirit of Ecstasy ornament and the iconic front grille shape, the brand name and logo stayed with the larger engineering company Rolls-Royce plc, which consequently sold those licences to BMW.

The two German car makers came to an agreement and by 2003, BMW was making Rolls-Royce cars at its new facility at Goodwood. VW retained the designs and the old production facility, as well as ownership of Bentley.

From 2005, sales at Rolls-Royce Motor Cars (as the company was known by then) went from strength to strength, increasing 660 per cent to 2022.