Rolls-Royce to reach 4,000 units this year

Tue, 30 Sep 2014

Rolls-Royce is, by nature, an exclusive auto marque, but it has been steadily increasing its sales to the point that it could be looking at 4,000 units by the end of this year, setting a new record for the German-owned British automaker.

You don't even need to go back a decade to find Rolls-Royce sales hovering around the 1,000-unit mark. But that was when Goodwood only offered the Phantom saloon. The subsequent addition of the Phantom DHC and Phantom Coupe helped expand its portfolio, enlarged even further by the addition of the Ghost in 2010, by which time total sales were reaching 3,000 units.

The Spirit of Ecstasy marque has been hovering around the 3,500 mark ever since, but with the Wraith now in the mix and its reach extending into growing markets around the world, Autocar reports that global sales could top 4,000 units this year. (Of course that pales in comparison to one-time sister brand Bentley, which topped 10,000 deliveries last year, but Rolls-Royce typically competes at a higher price bracket.)

That's all well and fine in the abstract, but what that means in concrete terms is that Goodwood stands to generate around $800 million in profits this year. That means it has the cash on hand to fund the development of its own models internally, without needing to rely on parent company BMW to provide the capital. The financial independence will be brought to bear first on the next-generation Phantom as well as on the next Ghost, but also on the SUV project that's currently on the table.

By Noah Joseph