How personal is the defintion of luxury when choosing a car?

The question of what is luxury is being completely redefined these days. Take the smartwatch, for example, is it a symbol of luxury and success? No, yet the wealthy are wearing them just the same as anyone else because they are a symbol of the technological innovation that suits our lifestyles today.

The same is true of cars. In some markets, Tesla is viewed as a luxury brand, competing with the likes of Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz, but is it? Many would say no, that Tesla is a beneficiary of the current environment. In Europe, a Tesla is a disposable item, bought on lease or through a company car scheme due to government incentives and savings on running costs and replaced every couple of years like a new smartphone.

Granted that’s also true of many German models, but it’s not very sustainable is it? And here too we have a luxury buzzword. Carmakers are tripping over themselves to get the next sustainable tech to customers. BMW has been at the forefront from the days of the i3 with its hemp material in the dashboard, but today it is looking at recycled fishing nets and even fake carbon fibre that is made from plant materials and is indistinguishable in its looks from the real thing. Mercedes and Audi have their own sustainable materials and so too do Land Rover and Volvo with their vegan leather options.

Luxury is technology too. Who has the biggest touchscreen, the best integration of the tech into design? How many Wi-Fi connections does your car have, does it have massage seats and can it almost drive itself? Tech is probably the biggest battleground at the moment. Digital instrumentation in Ferrari and Lamborghini models have replaced traditional dials, but here too, the world of luxury performance is changing.

Sports cars used to be about being close to the ground, having space for two and looking cool. Today performance and luxury have combined in the SUV. Ferrari has its new Purosangue (not an SUV, says Ferrari), Lamborghini has its Urus and you could argue that the Bentley Bentayga Speed ticks the box too. It’s debatable whether these are as cool as a sports car, but they are a sign of the times and redefine what luxury is all about.

It is possible to combine tech with the traditional perception of luxury. Bentley has its clever rotating infotainment system that at the touch of a button can be a screen, a trio of traditional dials or a panel of handcrafted wood. Rolls-Royce has a panel to hide the touchscreen alongside the exquisitely crafted Gallery artwork along the dash in the Phantom. Everyone has their way of maintaining an air of traditional luxury with modern tech.

What luxury also means though is feeling at home. It used to be just about having the same high-end audio system that you have in your house; Naim, Bowers and Wilkins or Mark Levinson. Today it’s about relaxing in sumptuous reclining seats while watching a movie or having an integrated table so you can remain connected to the office while being chauffeured.

Take things another step further and luxury is about time. Like it or not, the future will contain self-driving cars and pods that take us from A to B and in the case of models like the Volkswagen Gen.Travel concept, even Z. Luxury will be not having to drive to the airport, stand in a security queue and then be squashed into a tube to fly to Durban. It will be climbing into your luxury pod at your door and being transported by road to your destination while you work, play or sleep. It will be about making the most of your time in a way that suits you.

The brakes have been put on some of the futuristic self-driving ideas we saw a few years ago, but they’ve only slowed. Sustainability is the big topic right now along with electrification. We are in a period of transition, one where an electric Jaguar I-Pace shares the road with a growling Mercedes-AMG G63, where Rolls-Royce has given us the Cullinan but at the same time is about to reveal its Spectre battery-electric model.

It’s a fascinating time but one thing will remain the same no matter what, the concept of luxury is as personal as it has ever been. It is not defined by the cost of a car, nor by how fast it goes, but by how it makes you feel, because luxury is much more than just the product, it’s an emotion.