As Rolls-Royce prepares to brings its first crossover vehicle to market, the British brand’s CEO has taken a potshot at what will likely be the new vehicle’s closest rival, the Bentley Bentayga, branding it a “camouflaged Q7”.
Project Cullinan, which Rolls-Royce would prefer you describe as an “all-terrain, high-sided vehicle” as opposed to a crossover or SUV, is expected to be fully revealed in 2018, with deliveries kicking off the following year.
CEO Torsten Mueller-Oetvoes told Automotive News that the Cullinan would ride on the same aluminium platform that underpins the recently revealed Phantom, rather than borrowing its architecture from elsewhere within the BMW Group.
“We are not using mass-manufactured body shells,” Mueller-Oetvoes told the publication.
“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 said.
The Bentagya, of course, shares its underpinnings with the Q7, with next-generation versions of the Volkswagen Touareg and Porsche Cayenne (along with the upcoming Lamborghini Urus) also set to inherit the platform.
