Final assembly of the BMW-designed Rolls-Royce Phantom at Goodwood in southern England is now running at the planned rate of five cars a day, having begun (with a workforce recruited largely from outside the car industry) at one car a fortnight at the beginning of 2003.
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The company ended its first year with 481 cars completed but is still aiming for an average of 1,000 a year, over the model cycle. Around 20% will be sold in Europe.
On Friday, BMW said it delivered around 300 Phantoms in 2003. A spokesman at Mercedes’ rival luxury brand Maybach would not give sales figures but admitted industry talk of 600 last year was “not wide of the mark”.
Rolls-Royce currently has a network of 61 dealers worldwide, but this will rise to 70 in coming months.
This year Rolls-Royce will celebrate its centenary – Charles Rolls and Henry Royce first met in May 1904 and agreed to go into the bespoke luxury car business together.
A programme of events runs throughout the year, beginning with a world tour organised by the Rolls-Royce owners’ and enthusiasts’ clubs that starts in New Zealand at the end of January and includes Australasia, Europe and the United States, finishing at Pebble Beach, California in August.
