Rolls-Royce Customers Are Surprisingly Young

If you think about Rolls-Royce owners, you might envision stuffy country-club members in their late 70s being driven around by a chauffeur. The brand’s older models, like the Phantom of the recent (and the distant) past, the Silver Spur, and the rest don’t exactly inspire visions of young, hip owners either. But it turns out that the average Rolls-Royce buyer, especially those taking home the new Spectre EV, is half as old as we had thought.

Young Buyers Are Flocking To Rolls-Royce Dealers

Rolls-Royce North America President Jon Colbeth told The Drive that the average age of a new Rolls-Royce Spectre buyer is just 35. Shockingly, and that’s with no pun intended, 40% of total Spectre buyers are new to the brand as well.

To be clear, it’s the average age of the incoming buyers that’s so low. But apparently, it’s enough to put that overall average well into Millennial territory. Colbeth didn’t say how old the rest of the model’s buyers are, but he did answer for the entire Rolls-Royce lineup. The average age of the company’s customers is just 42.

Yup, we’re shocked too. That makes the brand one of the youngest for customers in the entire industry. Last year, Cox Automotive said that the average age of a new car buyer across the entirety of the automotive multiverse was 52. Even against specifically EVs, which skew younger, Rolls is beating the average of 41.

Wealthy Young Buyers Want Tech And Flash

“Tech is important to youthful clients, and that’s why the Spectre has resonated with those looking to buy their first Rolls-Royce,” Colbeth told The Drive. “New tech, new materials, new designs, it all plays a role.”

When you think about it with this context, all these bespoke models Rolls has been showing off in the last few years make a lot of sense. These special one-off cars that largely feature bold colors and bizarre options? They would’ve been poo-pooed by buyers of the brand a decade or two ago. Thank you, Millennials.

What kind of customers, aside from age, are buying so many bespoke cars that Rolls had to expand? A few years ago, at a joint BMW and Rolls-Royce drive event, head of Rolls-Royce communications for the Americas Gerry Spahn gave me some insights. He said that many new Rolls buyers were coming from the tech industry. Sell your startup or have your IPO hit big and make some fancy new purchases. Musicians, especially rappers, he said, were attracted to the brand. Rock stars and Rollers are nothing new, after all. Athletes, as well, bring youth and money to the brand.

Related

The Most Powerful Rolls-Royce Ever Is Here

The Spectre Black Badge has mountains of torque and loads of power, but the software Goodwood has developed is just as intriguing.

So expect more cars like the flowery Velvet Orchid Spectre that the brand revealed last month. With a world of options for buyers who need their cars to stand out, Rolls-Royce is surprisingly the choice for customers who are a lot younger than you might have thought.

Source: The Drive