Britain's luxury car makers notch up a gear as export sales continue to boom
Supermodel Claudia Schiffer scored highly in the fashion stakes when she unveiled the new Vauxhall Corsa at the Paris Motor Show yesterday.
It is the UK’s second-biggest-selling car after the Ford Fiesta, and Scotland’s favourite motor, with 83,000 sold in Britain last year.
But Rolls-Royce, Bentley and Jaguar Land Rover led the British charge of luxury cars at the prestigious motor show, as booming export sales propelled them towards new record highs.
Driving sales: Supermodel Claudia Schiffer scored highly in the fashion stakes when she unveiled the new Vauxhall Corsa at the Paris Motor Show yesterday
Torsten Muller-Otvos, Rolls-Royce chief executive, said the firm based at Goodwood in West Sussex was on target for a record.
‘Rolls-Royce is on a roll,’ he said. ‘We will break through the 4,000 sales barrier for the first time this year and set a new record. This is the fourth record year in a row.’
His firm unveiled the £500,000 Rolls-Royce Phantom Metropolitan with an art deco interior, aimed at the super-rich.
Last year Rolls-Royce sold 3,630 cars but is already 30 per cent up on sales for the first half of 2014, prompting hopes of a new record.
The US is the largest market. China is a significant market but has ‘softened’ because of the anti-corruption crackdown by the Chinese authorities. The UK is ‘steady’ at about 8 per cent of sales.
Rolls-Royce is now ‘financially self-sustaining’, less reliant on German parent company BMW for cash and able to fund investment, including a new logistics centre in Bognor Regis.
This is to clear space for production of a new open-topped Rolls-Royce. But it still draws heavily on BMW’s research and development.
Bentley launched its new £252,200 Mulsanne Speed, which has a top speed of 190mph and acceleration from rest to 60mph of 4.8 seconds.
The Crewe-based luxury car-maker, owned by Germany’s giant Volkswagen group, has recorded its best half-year sales of 5,252, a rise of 23 per cent.
It is to launch a new Bentley sports utility vehicle in 2016 for which it is cranking up capacity. It plans to increase production from just over 10,000 to more than 15,000 by 2018.
Jaguar Land Rover meanwhile struck up the band - a military band including soldiers in red tunics and bearskins - at the show, to unveil its new XE sports saloon car and its new Land Rover
Discovery sport, for which it has received 1,200 orders in just three weeks.
One UK motor industry executive said European car makers were slashing prices and offering great deals to UK consumers because Britain was the only country that was showing good sales growth.
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