The famous Project Cullinan Rolls-Royce has been working on for the last couple of years will be finished within a year, as a new report suggests. The first deliveries of the ultra-luxurious SUV will take place in the early months of 2019 as the CEO of the company, Mr. Torsten Mueller-Oetvoes recently confirmed for Automotive News Europe. Unlike other cars in the super-luxury SUV segment though, the upcoming crossover won’t be sharing its chassis with a lesser car, instead being built atop the same frame as the recently launched Phantom VIII.
This is nothing new, to be frank, as the Goodwood-based manufacturer has been pretty adamant about it ever since the first pics of camouflaged prototypes started surfacing online, claiming that unlike older models in Rolls-Royce’s range, this time, there will be no more sharing with BMW’s 7 Series. The reason behind such a move is apparently the goal of offering customers a truly bespoke car with the most comfortable ride possible in an automobile. This is what will set the Rolls-Royce SUV apart according to its CEO.
“We are not using mass-manufactured body shells,” he said for Automotive News Europe. “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.” To me, that sounds like shots fired in the direction of the Bentley Bentayga, a car known for sharing a lot of its components with the Audi Q7. At the same time, the Q7 shares a lot of its underpinnings with other cars from the Volkswagen group, including the Touareg and the Porsche Cayenne.
The car Rolls-Royce is working on won’t be a traditional SUV as it has been highlighted on a number of occasions. Every time an official talks about the Cullinan project, they describe it as a ‘high-riding all-terrain vehicle’ and not a mundane and terribly regular SUV. On the technical side of things, expect the same four-seat layout inside while the engine under the hood will probably be the same as the one used on the Phantom. Other than that, the interior will most likely also feature the famous Gallery of the Phantom while the most expensive materials will be used to cocoon the occupants in absolute luxury.