Goodbye to the Old Rich: 35-Year-Olds Are the Top Buyers of the €400,000 Electric Rolls-Royce

The luxury world is changing. Many brands have spent years trying to reshape their image to attract a younger audience because there are more young millionaires than ever. If you prefer, we can call them the new rich.

Rolls-Royce is one of those brands. It isn’t radically changing its approach, as Jaguar did, but it is making efforts to reach new customers with different products, such as the Rolls-Royce Spectre.

The luxury electric car that attracts the new rich

Many people aged 35 cannot afford to buy a new car; in fact, the average age of our car fleet is one of the oldest in Europe. When buying a new car at that age, people tend to opt for affordable models, but there are always exceptions, to the point that this age group has become a key segment for Rolls-Royce, one of the most luxurious brands there is.

Normally, we associate the models of this British brand with customers who are already older. They are very expensive cars and, traditionally, have had a very conservative approach, so they were aimed at a mature audience with high purchasing power, but everything is changing and the luxury world is no exception.

In the same way that the Louis Vuitton and Gucci client isn’t the same as a couple of decades ago, the profile of a Rolls-Royce buyer has changed. Jon Collbeth, the new president of Rolls-Royce North America, notes that the average new Rolls-Royce customer who buys a Spectre—that is, someone who has no other cars and opts for the company’s 100% electric coupé—is 35 years old.

It should be emphasized that this is not the average age of all Spectre buyers, but of those who do not already own a Rolls-Royce, but it remains striking because the average age of the brand’s car buyers overall sits at 42 years, which is much lower than it was years ago, when most Rolls-Royce buyers were around 60.

However, the new customers arriving at the brand attracted by the Spectre are even younger, so this electric car is allowing Rolls-Royce to widen its customer base.

To that extent, overall, 40% of buyers of this car are new Rolls-Royce customers. “Technology is important to young clients, and that is why the Spectre captures the attention of those looking to buy their first Rolls-Royce. New technology, new materials, new designs—all of it matters,” Colbeth said.

It is a clear example of ‘renew or perish’. There are now many more young millionaires than a few years ago, and their tastes are not the same as those of older people. If Rolls-Royce limits itself to selling cars that only appeal to aging aristocrats and retired millionaires, it is closing the doors to an increasing number of potential buyers.

That partly explains the Spectre’s launch and the configurations commonly seen in this model, very different from those seen in the Corniche or Ghost decades ago: many Spectres have very striking exterior colors, such as purple or pink, while previously most Rolls-Royce cars were painted in discreet gray, black, or white tones, like the one Julio Iglesias owned.

And the same can be said of its interior, although Rolls-Royce continues to offer very discreet configuration options for its more conservative clients.

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With these changes, Rolls-Royce has lowered the average age of its buyers to 42 years, becoming the brand with the youngest average age ahead of the BMW Group, ahead of BMW and MINI themselves.

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