Invited guests view the new Rolls-Royce Phantom at an event in London, Britain. [Photo/Agencies]
British luxury automaker Rolls-Royce is witnessing a shift in its Chinese customer base, marked by youthfulness, diversity and a demand for personalization, according to a company senior executive.
Zhao Zhen, regional director of Greater China at Rolls-Royce, emphasized the brand's deepening commitment to the market, citing Chinese clients as a key source of inspiration for global design innovation at an interview on Wednesday.
Rolls-Royce's Chinese customers span a wide range of ages, with many of them owning more than one of the company's cars, according to Zhao.
He mentioned that younger customers from cities like Shenzhen in Guangdong province and Hangzhou in Zhejiang province are embracing innovative concepts, such as incorporating nebulae on the twinkling fiberoptics Starlight Headliner in the interior or featuring their baby's footprint on their cars. And Rolls-Royce can help bring these ideas to life.
"The only limit to our creativity is the client's imagination," Zhao said.
This ethos is exemplified by the 2023 opening of the Private Office Shanghai, the brand's only dedicated customization center in China, which can better cater to the diverse preferences of Chinese customers.
"Rolls-Royce provides customers with emotional value, customized experiences, exclusive works of art, which sets it apart from traditional car manufacturers," Zhao said. Bespoke is Rolls-Royce, he added.
In 2024, the average value of bespoke commissions in each handcrafted motor car was 10 percent higher than it was in 2023.
The company started the expansion of its only factory earlier this year with an investment of 300 million pounds ($388 million), the largest single amount in the plant since it opened in 2003.
"The investment is going to enable us to significantly extend our manufacturing plant in the UK to accommodate the rapidly growing demand that we are seeing for our bespoke program," said Chris Brownridge, CEO of Rolls-Royce.
Over the past two decades, the production capacity at the Goodwood factory has seen a breakthrough: the number of employees has increased from the initial 300 to more than 2,500, and the daily output has risen from one car to 28 cars.
In 2024, Rolls-Royce sold 5,712 cars, with the Cullinan SUV the most popular model. The Spectre electric car has surpassed expectations with its sales performance in the European market.
"We don't measure our success with volume, and we never will. We create value by handcrafting individual personal masterpieces for each of our clients," Brownridge said.
The company plans to launch its second pure electric model in 2025.Zhao mentioned that although the company announced plans to be fully electric by 2030, the realization of this goal will still depend on customer demand.
"Whether in terms of craftsmanship, materials, or technology, Rolls-Royce has strong technical reserves. Ultimately, whether to apply these technologies to our products depends entirely on customer demand," Zhao said.
