Rolls-Royce Motors to invest £300m in UK as mass market carmakers retreat

Rolls-Royce Motors is to invest a record £300m to double the size of its UK factory and meet soaring demand for customised cars that can sell for more than £1m.

The investment in the plant at Goodwood in Sussex will be the biggest since it opened in 2003 and will also provide more space to build electric models.

It comes as mass market car manufacturers shut operations and cut jobs in Britain, as many struggle to meet stringent electric vehicle sales targets. Vauxhall owner Stellantis announced it was closing its Luton factory in November, while Ford has said it plans to cut 800 jobs in the UK by 2027.

Rolls-Royce is expanding its manufacturing capacity amid a boom in demand for complex, customised vehicles. As a maker of high-end vehicles, it has not been affected by the same headwinds buffeting makers of low-margin, mass-market cars.

Speaking to The Telegraph last month, chief executive Chris Brownridge said: “ We don’t see ourselves as making cars , which sounds like a peculiar thing to say because clearly we do make motor cars, but our clients are buying a luxury experience and an extraordinary, very resonant and individual motor car, so it’s very different.”

Last year saw record demand for bespoke takes on the Rolls-Royce lineup, with spending on personalisation up by 10pc on average.

Requests have included mother-of-pearl artworks built into the interior of cars , dashboards featuring more than 500 individually shaped pieces of wood crafted into artwork, illuminated star charts in car ceilings and leather seat patterns requiring more than 850,000 stitches.

One US buyer requested a holographic paint finish that appears metallic under low light before bursting into a rainbow effect in bright sunshine.

Rolls-Royce, which is owned by BMW, also created the Phantom Goldfinger to mark the 60th anniversary of a 1937 model appearing in the third James Bond film.

The car came in the same black and yellow finish of the original and featured gold-plated treadplates, a gold chassis number and a gold bar shaped like the vehicle hidden in a centre console “vault”. It was sold to a UK buyer.

While bespoke designs are popular worldwide, demand is particularly high in the Middle East and in China, where the average age of buyers is just 40. Chinese customers often request cultural symbols such as illuminated or embroidered dragon motifs, Rolls-Royce said.

Mr Brownridge said the investment at the Sussex plant was necessary to create space for complex coachbuilding capabilities after production reached 28 cars a day.

He said: “Record bespoke results demonstrate our clients are increasingly drawn to the marque to create ever more ambitious and valuable motor cars.”

Rolls-Royce delivered 5,712 cars last year, its third-highest annual total, led by demand in the US and Europe. Sales were spurred by the new Cullinan and Ghost models, with the former the brand’s top seller.

The manufacturer also delivered the Arcadia Droptail, the most recent in a series of one-off cars and understood to have been priced at £25m, making it the world’s costliest new motor.

Rolls-Royce has recently expanded its network of offices around the world, where clients can pore over designs and draw up customisation plans. New branches in New York and Seoul were opened alongside existing ones in Dubai, Shanghai and Goodwood itself. Visits typically boost customer spending by 25pc.

Employment at Goodwood has increased from around 300 people two decades ago to more than 2,500. Planning permission to extend the site was granted in 2024, with preparation and landscaping work now underway.

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