Rolls-Royce customers’ average age is 45 years old

If you had to guess, what is the average age of a Rolls-Royce customer? Sixty? Seventy? Well, the answer is a lot more surprising, according to Rolls-Royce Motor Cars chief executive officer Torsten Müller-Ötvös.

Speaking to Bloomberg, Müller-Ötvös said ,”we are seeing, in that segment of ultrahigh-end-growth individuals, a fast decrease in average age. It’s fantastic, it really is.” As it turns out, the global average age of a Rolls-Royce customer is 45 years old, which is significantly lower from 56 years (seven years ago).

That is lower than the average age of car buyers overall (52 years old), referring to data by Kelley Blue Book, which also pins the average age of luxury car buyers at 50 years old. Rolls-Royce’s average new-buyer age is also lower than that of Mercedes-Benz (51 years old) and BMW (50 years old).

Attracting younger buyers is certainly beneficial to the luxury carmaker, as it not only allows for them potentially to become repeat customers, but also ward off the brand image that only pensioners drive such cars. The brand’s new Black Badge series of cars is an example of how it is attempting to appeal to younger buyers.

Müller-Ötvös also revealed that most of its youthful buyers are self-made millionaires/billionaires. “It’s not any longer inherited money. The majority is all self-generated money in very young people who are already making fortunes, be it real estate, be it engineering, be it IT, be it Western entertainment, whatever,” he said.