Storming Bentley sales show no sign of slowing

Bentley is continuing its rocketing sales success, with the Crewe-based luxury brand boosting its figures by a third in the first half of 2012.

Sales are up in every region, leading to a global increase of 32 per cent, with 3,929 cars delivered to customers.

While China had recently emerged as Bentley’s number one market, 2012 has seen the USA regain top spot with 1,140 cars sold, a rise of 25.7 per cent. Chinese sales were up 55.7 per cent with 1,059 cars delivered to customers.

Model-wise the biggest rise was recorded by the Continental GT coupé, sales up by 48.5 per cent.

The flagship Mulsanne (pictured) also sold strongly, up by 30 per cent aided by the release of the Diamond Jubilee Special Edition and Mulliner Driving Specification.

In Europe results climbed 22.9% per cent with 607 deliveries to customers, and in the UK 557 custoemrs took delivery of new cars, a rise of 4.5 per cent.

Middle East sales were up by 47.9 per cent , with 346 cars. And 52.6 per cent more Bentleys were sold in the Asia Pacific region, 114.3 per cent in Japan.

Not surprisingly Bentley Chief Executive Wolfgang Duerheimer is delighted with the results, saying that they show strong growth for Bentley in every single global region.

“The competition between the Americas and China continues and we are watching closely to see who will emerge as the largest region in 2012,” he adds.

“Sales are being driven up by our flagship Mulsanne which is up 30 per cent following strong interest in the US and China. We are also pleased to see the continued growth of the new Continental GT W12, our pinnacle performance coupe.”

Duerheimer says he is very optimistic about the future for Bentley; “We are gaining more momentum every month due to the strong performance of our global dealer network, the appeal of our existing model line to customers and the exciting future models like the Continental GT Speed we have in the pipeline.”

Words by: Andrew Charman