Rolls-Royce announced plans to build a sport utility vehicle (SUV), validating hints dropped by company officials earlier this year.
.The announcement comes after months of rumors that Rolls would finally introduce something to compete against Porsche’s Cayenne, Mercedes-Benz’s G-Wagon, Land Rover’s Range Rover, and Bentley’s (forthcoming) Bentayga. This now leaves Ferrari as the only major luxury automaker without an SUV in its lineup.
Rolls has confirmed that its vehicle will be built on an all-new aluminum architecture (not one carried over from BMW’s X5 or X7 lineup), and it will be able to cross “any terrain,” according to the announcement letter. Executives have said they decided to move forward with plans to make the rig after many “discerning customers” urged them to do so..
Rolls has proffered no photo along with an open letter on the issue released by the CEO. Executives have also declined to divulge a timeline for when it might be built.
They did promise to send some images of old shooting-brake cars that Rolls used to make. You remember the ones—the big saloons wealthy people would take on hunting trips as places to store guns and wine and cucumber sandwiches as light refreshment after their jaunt. Maybe this new thing from Rolls will evoke that sprit of adventure. It certainly has the pedigree for it.
Here are a few other probabilities for Rolls’s Everywhere Vehicle:
- It will cost more than any other SUV on the market—and likely cost more than anything else in its current lineup.
- It will sport a V12 engine and all-wheel drive.
- The flat vertical grille that makes a Rolls unmistakable from meters away will be retained.
- Exotic woods, lambswool carpeting, and mother-of-pearl inlays will be design essentials, as will champagne coolers, umbrellas hidden in the doors, and a locking bulletproof glove box.
SUV sales rose 88.5 percent from 2008 through 2013, according to research firm IHS. By 2016 one in every five vehicles sold in the world will be an SUV. With that kind of growth, a Rolls-Royce SUV makes perfect sense—even without seeing what it’ll look like.-Bloomberg
