Editor’s letter: Rolls-Royce breaks records with the personal touch

“We’re not the taste police,” said Rolls-Royce boss Torsten Müller-Ötvös

The firm's average sale in 2022 cost €500,000, but some Phantoms sold for four times as much

A decade ago, the average Rolls-Royce was selling for a quarter of a million euros. Now, it’s double that, the firm surpassing the €500,000 mark for the first time in 2022. Some Phantoms go for more than four times that. 

Behind the brand’s rise to the very pinnacle of the industry is boss Torsten Müller-Ötvös, who remarkably is in his 13th year leading the Goodwood firm. Such longevity is rarely seen at the top of a car company, but with success like Müller-Ötvös’s, why change things?

The average sale price metric is important as it is the one for which Müller-Ötvös would like to be judged. The company enjoyed a record year for volumes as well in 2022 (6021 cars), yet such numbers don’t interest him and have no bearing on how exclusive Rolls-Royce’s cars remain as volume grows. Indeed, Rolls-Royce customers are far from put off by the doubling in cost, it’s something they covet, and it’s that ever-growing price tag that sets the barrier of entry, thus preserving the exclusivity of the brand. 

“If it’s 7000 cars, it doesn’t make a difference,” he told me recently at the launch of the firm’s first electric car, the Rolls-Royce Spectre. “It’s about how you approach clients and deal with them. Our clients love the fact it’s €500,000 [a car] now, as it’s an exclusive club. This number [the average price of sale] defines how exclusive we are, not whether it’s 6000 or 6500 cars sold.”

The impact of Müller-Ötvös in Rolls-Royce’s rise cannot be underestimated. He lives and breathes not just the company but the needs of those buying its cars. He is always in contact with customers, having dinners with them and hosting events to not just talk about cars but also understanding their other interests, and products and brands that they enjoy.

Müller-Ötvös is complimentary on just how creative his customers are with some of the colours and specifications his customers create. The design team will always help push a customer in a certain direction should they be unsure how to ‘commission’ their Rolls-Royce, but this is rarely needed due to how clear-minded customers are. 

“We’re not the taste police,” he said. “Don’t judge based on how it looks at Goodwood, or European tastes; judge it on how it looks in Kuala Lumpur or Abu Dhabi, in its natural habitat. There it looks spectacular.”

Müller-Ötvös is also rare in being willing to comment on other car companies, too. He recognises that it’s highly unlikely a Rolls-Royce will be the only car in an owner’s garage (Phantom to B&Q, anyone?). That gives him the ability to be sharp and precise in a Rolls-Royce’s positioning, and what it does – and just as importantly – doesn’t need to do, as has been done with the Spectre.

“There is no need for something super-funky or technical, our customers have other cars for that,” he said. “Customers know what they can get from their Ferrari, their Rolls-Royce, their Koenigsegg, their Ford F-150 truck… It’s like a wardrobe: each car has its own occasion.

“We don’t do focus groups. We have dinners, we talk, and ask them [customers] about their life, about their art, our brand. It’s an easy-flowing conversation that gives us a feeling of what is right and wrong. We judge things not just intellectually, but with our guts.”

Then there’s Bentley. At the turn of the century, when Rolls-Royce split from Bentley, the two famous luxury marques cars were largely the same. Now, two very different market positions have emerged.

Rolls-Royce is undoubtedly the industry’s top dog, the price and size of its cars beyond anything else from anyone else. Bentley too has carved out its own market positioning. It is well clear of any premium maker with prices running deep into six figures, while not troubling Rolls, nor being seen as inferior to it. Rolls-Royce is Rolls-Royce, and Bentley is Bentley. The Crewe firm is hugely successful too, clocking up 15,174 sales in 2022. 

“They’ve found their way, we’ve found ours,” said Müller-Ötvös. “We operate in a completely different segment. We’re not in a car segment, we’re a house of luxury and have adjusted to being a true luxury brand with products and also our behaviour with clients.”

That shift from being a maker of luxury cars to a true luxury brand, viewed as a peer of the finest fashion houses and luxury goods makers is perhaps Müller-Ötvös’s biggest achievement at Rolls-Royce. Thirteen years in, he shows no signs of slowing down, nor of Rolls-Royce’s success diminishing. The million-euro ‘average’ Rolls-Royce? Don’t bet against it.