There’s no compact SUV coming from Goodwood, OK?
With the recent launch of the Cullinan SUV, revered British purveyors of automotive luxury Rolls-Royce are content with their 5-strong product lineup, and are not interested in expanding it any further. The sales successes that are being attributed to the Cullinan may be impressive, but the company doesn’t want to risk diluting brand value by introducing a similarly-styled but smaller version to accompany it.
It’s a good thing that the rumours of a lineup expansion were dealt with swiftly: Since the arrival of the Cullinan, Rolls-Royce’s first-ever SUV, there’s been plenty of chatter regarding the possibility of a smaller SUV, or another Phantom cabriolet. Besides the SUV, Rolls-Royce sales have grown considerably in the last few years, with the average age of their customers dropping from ‘nearly-dead’ to ‘still-pretty-lively’ in the same timeframe.
However, when UK publication Autocar asked the big boss at Goodwood about a possible lineup inflation, the notion was shot down almost immediately:
“No, definitely not. You need to go with the flow, so for that reason, I’d never say never, never, never – but we don’t currently have any plans to expand our model lineup any further. Our strategy is definitely to maintain our high-end price position, and not move the brand just for volume sake into lower price segments.” — Torsten Müller-Ötvös, CEO, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars
It seems that while customer reaction to the Rolls-Royce Cullinan has been “brilliant,” the management team in Goodwood are more keen to protect their brand values rather than chase the bottom line. In our opinion, with the sheer variety of SUVs and crossovers on offer, Rolls-Royce will likely be losing little in terms of business, really.
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