Bentley Sales Are Down In A World Where Luxury Is Booming

Rolls-Royce and Mercedes-Maybach saw sales increase in 2023, while Bentley’s deliveries are down double-digits year over year.

Several luxury automakers reported sales gains in 2023, and some even achieved record deliveries. Bentley wasn’t among them. The high-end British brand actually saw its volume fall 11 percent year over year.

Bentley moved 13,560 vehicles in 2023 versus 15,174 models in 2022. The Americas were the company’s biggest market yet again, with 3,848 deliveries. That number is down nine percent from the previous year. You can see all of the figures in the table below.

Things weren’t too bleak for Bentley, though, as 2023 was still its third-highest year for sales in the company’s history. Plus, personalization became an even more significant part of the business, increasing by 43 percent over 2022.

Gallery: Bentley Bentayga EWB Mulliner

Like last year, the Bentayga was the brand’s best-selling model in 2023. The SUV made up 44 percent of the brand’s sales. The company expanded the lineup last year by introducing the long-wheelbase EWB Mulliner (pictured above) as a flagship offering. The shorter variant received new options like all-wheel steering and adaptive seats that automatically adjusted the heating or ventilation depending on a person’s temperature.

“The luxury market was not immune from the challenging market conditions seen around the world in the second half of 2023 and despite this we were able to deliver our third highest retail position in history and enter 2024 with a strong order bank,” Adrian Hallmark, Chairman and CEO of Bentley, said in the sales announcement.

Some of Bentley’s rivals weren’t as hurt by these “challenging market conditions,” though. While Rolls-Royce’s total volume was lower than Bentley’s, the company didn’t see a drop in deliveries. The company moved 6,032 vehicles in 2023. While that was its best sales year ever, it was only 11 cars more than the year prior. The Mercedes-Maybach sub-brand, arguably Bentley’s closest competitor, saw sales increase by 19 percent in 2023.

The story was similar for other luxury automakers. Lamborghini moved 10,112 vehicles worldwide, marking the first time in the brand’s history that it topped 10,000 deliveries. The Urus, which shares a platform with the Bentayga, was the company’s best-seller. Porsche didn’t set a new company record, but deliveries reached 320,221 units, three percent more than in 2022. Sales in the United States were the highest ever, with a volume of 75,415 vehicles.

Judging by the increased sales for other high-end brands, the luxury car market didn’t look weak in 2023. Instead, customers chose to buy premium vehicles from other automakers other than Bentley. We’ve reached out to the company to see if we can glean a bit more insight into these sales result. We’ll be sure to update this article when we hear back.