Rolls Royce, the iconic luxury British brand is considering an ultra luxurious SUV to take on the likes of the upcoming Bentley SUV. We all have witnessed the speculations being made since a couple of years of an SUV from Rolls-Royce. After the confirmation of an SUV from Bentley, our anticipations got stronger. Torsten Mueller Oetvoes (Rolls Royce CEO) has stated that the luxury carmaker is strongly thinking about entering the SUV segment. Of late, the SUV segment is gaining tremendous popularity and considering the fact that Bentley is working on an SUV, due in 2016, Rolls-Royce seems to be participating in the race as well.
Mueller Oetvoes believes that the SUV segment has been incredibly stable during the slowdown period. The designers are currently working out with SUV sketches to evaluate whether an SUV fits in the brand or not and if they get the go ahead, the launch should take place by 2018. The vehicle might use a modified BMW X5 platform just like how the Ghost sits on 7-Series underpinnings.
The Rolls-Royce SUV is expected to be costlier than the upcoming Bentley SUV, as the latter is likely to be priced around $2,40,000 (Rs. 1.51 crores without taxes) and the cheapest car from Rolls-Royce is the Wraith retailing at $2,34,000 (Rs. 1.48 crores). The CEO believes Rolls-Royce is highly profitable and has earned back all the investment made by their parent company BMW.
Rolls-Royce is always keen to expand its product portfolio frequently that now consists of the latest Wraith coupe. With full availability of the Wraith, the British carmaker aims to sell more than 4000 cars next year. The CEO has also hinted of the upcoming launch, which is likely to be a drophead/convertible version of the Wraith, expected in 2015. At present, some of the premium luxury SUV consists of the Range Rover, Porsche Cayenne, Mercedes GL-Class and Audi Q7. Upcoming high-end luxury SUVs in the race includes Bentley SUV, Maserati Levante, Lamborghini Urus, Aston Martin Lagonda and a bigger version of the Audi Q7 (likely to be called Q8).
Source – Bloomberg
