By Ilaria Grasso Macola
Rolls-Royce Motor Cars has suggested that the recent spike in Covid cases in China is unlikely to impact demand for its luxury cars, despite a slight drop in sales in China last year.
Chief executive Torsten Muller-Otvos told journalists today that the carmaker’s sales were slightly behind 2021 levels due to Beijing’s strict zero-Covid policy, which was scrapped in early December.
But he was unphased by the rise of Covid cases since restrictions were relaxed.
“I’m extremely pleased with how the business went in these circumstances for us last year, so nothing to complain, nothing to be worried about mid and long-term,” Muller-Otvos said.
“This is a fundamentally important market for us and it will remain a very important market,” he added.
China remains Rolls-Royce’s second largest market and a key source of revenue, making up 25 per cent of its total global sales.
The Americas takes the largest chunk of its total sales, about 35 per cent, while the EU and Middle East make up 20 and 10 per cent respectively.
Rolls-Royce has also said that it aims to open a private office in China, where people can customise their cars, to mark the country’s importance and also underline “the growing appetite of particularly the younger Chinese clients.”
The remarks come after the company, which considers itself not a “car manufacturer” but a “house of luxury”, reported record-breaking sales today.
Rolls-Royce sold around 6,021 cars in the past 12 months, while bespoke commissions went through the roof as the average price of a personalised car was around €500,000 (£400,000).
This was up from an average of €250,000 a decade ago.
The luxury carmaker, which has been a wholly-owned subsidiary of BMW since 2003, told reporters it wasn’t looking to follow in Porsche’s footsteps and launch an IPO.
“There is zero plan for any IPOs and allow me to say there is no appetite for IPOs,” the chief executive said.
The post Rolls-Royce Motor Cars not worried about China’s Covid wave as carmaker dismisses future IPO appeared first on CityAM.
