New Rolls-Royce SUV Won’t Be An SUV

In the current global automobile industry, crossovers and SUVs are dominating the markets. Therefore, automakers have been building these high-riding automobiles to meet demand and push their global sales numbers up. It also helps that these vehicles usually have larger profit margins than other segments of the automotive industry, especially when you look at the premium luxury market. A prime example of this is the Porsche Cayenne, and more recently the Porsche Macan, which make up the majority of sales and profit for the Porsche brand. Now ultra-exclusive luxury brand Rolls-Royce has confirmed that it will too build an SUV, just don't let them hear you call it that.

(Image Credit: Jack Donahue Photography)

In what has to be the grandest of product announcements, Rolls-Royce has sent a letter to shareholders stating their intentions of building a "high-bodied" vehicle that "can cross any terrain". Without ever mentioning the term SUV, Rolls-Royce has pretty much said that it will build an SUV. When examining the global automotive market, this move should not come as a surprise. Many luxury automakers are already building cross overs or SUVs or have stated their intention to do so. Even Rolls-Royce's historical other half, Bentley, will release their new SUV. The Bentley Bantayga, which Bentley proudly embraces it as an SUV, will be the direct competitor the yet-to-be-named Rolls-Royce "high bodied vehicle".

One interesting detail to note is that in it's letter, Rolls-Royce has pointed out that the new vehicle will have a "unique new motor". If we were to speculate, and we are, the new Rolls will have a V12, possibly turbocharged, as they have V12s in all their other products.

Rolls-Royce's parent company, BMW, already has an SUV platform that they use in their X5 and X6, and seeing as how BMW has managed to underpin the Ghost with a modified 7-series platform, we could see the new Rolls ride on an existing BMW platform. Or not. Rolls-Royce could just come up with a proprietary platform just for this model alone. We will just have to wait and see what they come up with for the 1% that they cater to.