I personally love it when the leaders of luxury brands drop all pretenses toward egalitarianism and lean into flagrant snobbery. Luxury, after all, is about status and hierarchy, so dropping any sham commitments toward indulging the hoi polloi shows that CEOs fundamentally understand their mission, which is to sell very expensive stuff to very rich people. Enter Bentley CEO Frank-Steffen Walliser, who is bucking the number-one trend in the auto industry and justifiably deciding that his contrarian
stance is a marketing point. In-car technology, in his view, is for proles. What his customers really need is more bespoke coachbuilding, as he told Newsweek in a recent interview.
Walliser has clearly thought through his position. Even expensive tech, in his view, is merely just tech. Customization, on the other hand... well, that's just the ticket in the new Gilded Age. And before you get your dander up and complain that Walliser is out of touch, consider that Bentley ownership implies a sort of willful, flamboyant out-of-touchness. Also, when it comes to the tech, who cares? I've test driven a bunch of Bentleys and the infotainment systems have never been what stuck in my mind. What I remember are things like removable cases for sunglasses, tire-valve caps that have little "Bs" on them, and buttery quilted leather seats. Details matter!
Read more: These Are The Most Forgettable Cars
Customization Is Key
Bentley has been quite effective at riding the wave of luxury one-upmanship. 75% of the vehicles that roll out of its factory in Crewe, England have been worked on by Bentley's Mulliner customization division, which does everything from bespoke paints and leathers to personalized wood veneers and 3D-printed components. There are Mulliner trim levels for models like the Flying Spur and Continental GT that carry five-figure premiums over the standard versions and offer expanded options, but Mulliner touches can be added to anything in the lineup, and it all costs a pretty penny. Then there's the really special stuff: The limited-run coachbuilt Batur started at almost $2 million, more than six times the price of the Continental with which it shares a platform and powertrain. Mulliner has also built continuation models of things like the 100-year-old Bentley Blower.
Walliser is also thinking about Mulliner in the same way that dentists think about giving lollipops to kids on their way out of the examining room: it's good for repeat business! In fact, he thinks that the uber-luxe Bentley owner will become addicted to the bespoke treatment, returning to the pleasure multiple times. Obviously, he's chasing a customer for whom net worth is a stratospherically abstract concept. Consider for a moment that you want people to fill their garages with very special Bentleys. Walliser has already done that.
All-In On Luxury To Bolster Profits
Walliser is literally just following the money. Bentley has been stressing growth in its customization business since earlier this year, when the company revealed that Mulliner is bolstering profitability even as Bentley came off 2024 with reduced top and bottom lines. In an interesting yet understandable turn, Walliser said in March that Bentley would ditch updates of vehicle sales numbers and instead concentrate on maxing out revenue per vehicle, according to Wards. Before you get upset about that, recognize that Bentley has never sold a lot of cars. And, if customization is adding significantly to profits, then volumes are irrelevant. The goal is to squeeze more out of every buyer.
You don't do that with over-the-air software updates. But the question of course becomes how long a brand like Bentley can continue to sustain this less-is-more-as-long-as-it-costs-a-lot philosophy. The brand is after all still part of the Volkswagen Group, a company that literally put the "folk" in cars and still needs to think about non-luxury, macro trends in the industry. With Bentley, this has usually taken the form of solving for powertrain challenges — I can remember when salvation was going to be biofuels — and the brand does have an EV upcoming. Walliser is offering some elitist innovation around making your Bentley quietly literally an expression of how much better you're doing than everybody else. The way things are going, this could be a winning business plan.
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