RR Traditional British luxury as we once knew it is in a state of flux. As the 2016 arrival date for the long-gestating Bentley SUV looms, word comes that Rolls-Royce, too, may be pondering a genuine SUV of its own. Peter Schwarzenbauer, the BMW board member in charge of Rolls-Royce recently told Top Gear “There are long-term independent studies that say half the world car market—50 per cent of everything—will be crossovers and SUVs. So it’s our responsibility to look into it. We are seriously analyzing a Rolls-Royce in the SUV area.” But any movement on the SUV front for the brand would come with Rolls-Royce–specific conditions, and Schwarzenbauer stopped short of saying it’s a forgone conclusion: “We have to know it would still be a true Rolls-Royce. If we’re not convinced it is, then I will not ask the board for permission to go forward with it. So the question is, does it fit to the Rolls-Royce brand? BMW had the same discussions before they made the first X5. No doubt at Porsche before the Cayenne, too.”
It’s probably not much of a coincidence that rumors of a 7-series based, BMW X7 SUV have also recently resurfaced, as it’s a reasonable assumption that the BMW bones would make an ideal platform for Rolls to build a wood- and leather-lined SUV. Seeing that neither Rolls-Royce nor Bentley remain wholly owned British entities, it shouldn’t be a surprise that they’d want to get in on the profitable SUV market. We can only assume that the folks at Land Rover, another storied British name under non-native stewardship, are preparing an even higher-zoot version of the Range Rover Supercharged in retaliation.
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