The upcoming Rolls-Royce Cullinan SUV is ready to take on the Bentley Bentayga.
The British automaker’s CEO, Torsten Mueller-Oetvoes, has confirmed the brand’s first SUV will be unveiled next year ahead of deliveries starting early 2019. The SUV, currently being called Project Cullinan, will ride on the same platform as the new Phantom that was unveiled last week, which is a platform exclusive to the Rolls-Royce brand. In other words, it won’t be shared with BMW and that’s a point the company’s CEO wanted to emphasize.
“We are not using mass-manufactured body shells,” he said. “That limits what you can do on the design side, and it undermines exclusivity massively. You don’t want a camouflaged [Audi] Q7 in that segment. You want to have a true Rolls-Royce.”
He is, of course, referring to the Bentley Bentayga which shares its underpinnings with the Audi Q7 since both brands fall under the Volkswagen Group.
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There’s a bit of irony in his statement however, since the Rolls-Royce Ghost, Wraith, and Dawn share their underpinnings with the BMW 7 Series. But maybe that’s all about to change with the introduction of the new Phantom’s platform, which will likely end up underpinning the rest of Rolls-Royce’s lineup in the future.
[Source: Automotive News Europe]
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