Since its announcement three years ago, the “most anticipated” Rolls-Royce Cullinan marks a shift away from the luxury saloon cars the luxury brand is best known for.
Named after the world’s biggest natural diamond, the Rolls-Royce Cullinan launches with luxury, performance and usability levels never before seen in the SUV market.
Rolls-Royce Cullinan certainly signifies the changing consumer demand, as more luxury car makers such as Bentley and Lamborghini have also launched SUVs, with Ferrari following the trend next year. With keen intentions of overtaking the Range Rover and Bentley Bentayga to become the new king of the ultra-luxury SUV segment, Rolls Royce has invested heavily on both the production and marketing of its Cullinan.
Branded as a full-capability off-roader “able to do whatever a Range Rover can do”, Rolls-Royce stresses Cullinan’s breadth of capability with a series of artfully filmed clips showing prototypes tackling rough roads and huge dunes, with the slogan “effortless, everywhere”.
Contemporary and functional design ensures Cullinan gains iconic status in the face of increasingly bland SUV designs. Retaining the refinement and luxury of a limo, the Cullinan is perhaps most practical of Rolls-Royces – versatile, family oriented, fun-to-drive.
Built with a modular aluminum space frame and a twin-turbo V12, the the Rolls-Royce Cullinan promises utmost smoothness and quietness. The 563bhp is developed at a relaxed 5000rpm, while the peak torque of 627lb ft occurs at only 1600rpm, made for optimal performance both off-road and on-road.
The SUV also has a rolodex of other novel features, like a cargo compartment separated from the cabin, suicide rear doors, and an automatic lowering system that drops the SUV 1.5 inches when the driver approaches.
“A host of other cutting-edge technology makes Rolls-Royce Cullinan the most technologically advanced car of its type in the world.”
The interior of the car is fashioned with the brand’s usual paragon of quality and style, lined with box-grain leather and comes with an impressive array of equipment. In the face of adventure, it plays even more roles, with wildlife and pedestrian warning, alertness assistant, and four-cameras with all-around visibility and a “helicopter view” to offer its riders a panoramic view of their surroundings.
The Bespoke division even offers a Viewing Suite and Recreation Module – a superbly made container filled with tools tailored to the buyer’s lifestyle demands, from croquet to drone racing.
To explain the shift in focus to luxury SUVs, Chief Executive Officer Torsten Müller-Ötvös observes how the changing target group of “ultra-high net worth individuals” has gotten “younger and younger”, with many rejecting the “old cliche that Rolls-Royce is chauffeur-only”. The new clientele wants to “drive themselves”, in a car that boosts versatility – “fits to go to the opera, which brings you up to the chalet in the Swiss Alps and so on”.
Also available in classic Tungsten Grey and a more striking shade of Magma Red, deliveries of the Rolls-Royce Cullinan will begin in 2019.
