Rolls-Royce to increase Goodwood HQ as call for for bespoke vehicles grows

Luxurious carmaker Rolls-Royce will increase its Goodwood manufacturing facility and world headquarters to satisfy the rising call for for bespoke fashions.

It’s going to make investments greater than £300 million so it may construct extra highly-customised variations of its vehicles for its super-rich clientele.

Even supposing UK petrol and diesel automotive gross sales are because of be phased out by way of 2030, the boss of Rolls-Royce declined to mention whether or not the company would forestall promoting vehicles with combustion engines to purchasers in a foreign country.

Rolls-Royce bought 5,712 vehicles in 2024, down from its document of 6,032 in 2023, however the general price of its gross sales was once upper because of it promoting extra bespoke builds.

Whilst the ones numbers might appear tiny in comparison with the hundreds of thousands of vehicles delivered each and every yr by way of mainstream producers, Rolls-Royce operates in a extremely rarefied marketplace.

The logo mentioned it “does now not expose costs” however it’s understood its least expensive style, the Ghost saloon, sells from about £250,000 upwards. Its Cullinan sports activities software automobile and electrical Spectre fashions are concept to begin at round £340,000.

As a luxurious carmaker serious about export markets, Rolls-Royce is insulated from most of the demanding situations lately going through the broader Ecu motor business. Alternatively, it’s been suffering from a fall in call for in China, considered one of its maximum vital markets.

Previous this yr, Brownridge mentioned emerging call for for customized cars was once serving to to offset that decline.

The 120-year previous British logo got here below complete keep an eye on of German carmaker BMW in 2003 and formally opened its Goodwood web site in West Sussex the similar yr. Rolls-Royce says this enlargement secures its long term in the United Kingdom.

For some consumers, merely proudly owning a Rolls-Royce is not unique sufficient. In recent times, the corporate has an increasing number of serious about construction highly-customised variations of its vehicles, which is able to then be bought at even upper costs. Its opponents additionally do that.

This has incorporated vehicles with holographic paint, containing one-off artistic endeavors, or that includes intricate hand-stitched embroidery. One style, designed as a homage to the 1964 James Bond movie Goldfinger, comprises options produced from forged 18-carat gold.

This is producing “extra sophisticated commissions” and “using the will” to increase Goodwood to have more room, Rolls-Royce leader govt Chris Brownridge instructed Radio 4’s Lately Programme.

However making in my view adapted vehicles, whilst winning, is a labour-intensive procedure that calls for time and area.

On the similar time, like different producers, the corporate is getting ready for a long term during which typical vehicles shall be phased out and changed by way of electrical fashions.

In the United Kingdom, the Labour executive has dedicated to phasing out gross sales of petrol and diesel vehicles by way of 2030, and is consulting automotive producers on how that can paintings.

Brownridge declined to inform the BBC whether or not the company would nonetheless be construction vehicles with combustion engines for purchasers in a foreign country in 2030, however mentioned the company had a “very transparent roadmap” and that electrical vehicles had been the “proper course for Rolls-Royce”.

A spokesman for Rolls-Royce mentioned below present plans and regulation, Rolls-Royce would nonetheless have the aptitude to construct combustion engine vehicles in 2030, if that’s what purchasers need.

Alternatively, he mentioned that 5 years “is a very long time”, and regulation might alternate, including that by way of then it is probably not possible for the company to construct such vehicles.

Rolls-Royce mentioned the extension of its manufacturing facility would “create further area” for construction bespoke vehicles.

It added that the plan would “additionally able the producing facility for the marque’s transition to an all-battery electrical automobile long term”.

The carmaker has already been granted making plans permission for the growth of the Goodwood plant, which was once inbuilt 2003 and to start with housed 300 employees. There are lately greater than 2,500 other people running at the web site, with an additional 7,500 in the United Kingdom provide chain.

Brownridge mentioned the Goodwood funding confirms the corporate has “an excessively safe industry for the long run”, so the ones jobs “are very a lot secure”.

“Our industry will doubtlessly develop in relation to the ones extra subtle commissions [and] in relation to the quantity of people who we’d like,” he added.

In the United States, president elect Donald Trump has threatened a lot upper price lists on automobile imports.

Brownridge mentioned the United States is “a vital marketplace”, however Rolls-Royce purchasers have extra “worth elasticity” than mass marketplace consumers, and the company isn’t reliant on the United States.

Rolls-Royce’s manufacturing facility enlargement announcement on Wednesday comes weeks after some other well-known British logo generated controversy whilst surroundings out its personal plans for the long run.

Jaguar – part of Jaguar Land Rover – is to be relaunched as an all-electric marque and moved sharply upmarket as a part of a big restructuring on the corporate.

In December, it unveiled a dramatically styled thought automotive, which along with a brand new emblem and a divisive on-line ad sparked a social media hurricane – and generated a lot of column inches.