Rolls-Royce "Intensively Thinking About" Selling An SUV

TTAC Staff
by TTAC Staff

Illustration by Garrett Bradford. All rights reserved, used with permission.

No sooner did Bentley confirm that they will indeed be producing a premium priced crossover, then Rolls-Royce CEO Torsten Mueller-Oetvoes announced that they will join the other British ultra luxury marque in offering a utility vehicle, likely to cost even more than the Bentley, which is expected to start at about $250,000.

The least expensive Rolls-Royce, the BMW 7 Series based Ghost, starts at more than that price. BMW owns Rolls-Royce while another German automaker, Volkswagen, owns Bentley. “We are intensively thinking about entering the SUV segment,” Mueller-Oetvoes told Bloomberg in an interview at the Frankfurt auto show. “The SUV segment is very interesting. It has been incredibly stable during the crisis, and I think a luxury niche will develop.”

Crossover frenzy seems to be gripping the auto industry at all price points, including among luxury brands. The Rolls-Royce announcement follows previous news that Maserati would sell the Levante SUV starting in 2015 and CUV concept reveals at the Frankfurt Motor Show by both Jaguar and Infiniti.

Illustration by Garrett Bradford. All rights reserved, used with permission.

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  • Hummer Hummer on Sep 14, 2013

    Can someone find an 06 H1 that is for sale with less than 20k miles for less then the original asking price? A vehicle that's in such high demand that's been out of production for over 7 years, that has a sellable price above OEM sticker. Can RR do that? Can anyone else do that?

    • See 9 previous
    • Old Man Pants Old Man Pants on Sep 14, 2013

      @Lie2me Wow, it's only Saturday and I'm already bored enough to comment on an RR thread. Gotta find something outside to do.

  • CRConrad CRConrad on Sep 20, 2013

    So, mr Bradford, was that the C-pillar of an Audi A6 Avant or an A4 Avant you grafted onto the RR? Just curious, you know...

  • ToolGuy Why would they change the grille?
  • Oberkanone Nissan proved it can skillfully put new frosting on an old cake with Frontier and Z. Yet, Nissan dealers are so broken they are not good at selling the Frontier. Z production is so minimal I've yet to see one. Could Nissan boost sales? Sure. I've heard Nissan plans to regain share at the low end of the market. Kicks, Versa and lower priced trims of their mainstream SUV's. I just don't see dealerships being motivated to support this effort. Nissan is just about as exciting and compelling as a CVT.
  • ToolGuy Anyone who knows, is this the (preliminary) work of the Ford Skunk Works?
  • Kwik_Shift_Pro4X I will drive my Frontier into the ground, but for a daily, I'd go with a perfectly fine Versa SR or Mazda3.
  • Zerofoo The green arguments for EVs here are interesting...lithium, cobalt and nickel mines are some of the most polluting things on this planet - even more so when they are operated in 3rd world countries.
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