As if it wasn’t obvious enough, the first-ever sport utility vehicle beautified by the Spirit of Ecstasy hood ornament is loosely based on the British automaker’s full-size luxury sedan. Though shorter and more capable off the beaten track, the Cullinan shares a lot of cabin trim with the all-new Phantom.
Looking past the BMW 7 Series-sourced steering wheel, take a look at the three-gauge digital instrument cluster, column-mounted gear shifter, HVAC layout, infotainment screen, and the iDrive controller. This isn’t so much a case of déjà vu, but of Rolls-Royce employing only the best bits and bobs available. After all, the Phantom is the most luxurious car on sale today, innit?
The spied prototype, which wears German plates titled in Munchen, also borrows the coach doors from its three-box brother. On closer inspection, the ultra-luxury automaker couldn’t do otherwise with rear doors as small as those. And by small, please take a look at the proportion of the vehicle per se compared to the rear doors, and you’ll figure out what “small” actually means.
From a design standpoint, there’s no denying the squared-off Cullinan is a far more attractive proposition than the BMW brand’s future full-size SUV, the too-big grilled X7 that’s scheduled to start production in 2018. And even though the taillights are not the real deal, this prototype holds promise for when the time comes and R-R decides to take the veils off the production-spec Cullinan SUV.
Riding on an aluminum spaceframe, the high-riding Roller is powered by the same 6.75-liter twin-turbo V12 employed by the Phantom. Horsepower and torque remain a mystery at this point in time, but the transmission is no mystery. It’s the ZF 8HP, and it’s linked to an all-wheel-drive system, as well as a GPS receiver that analyzes the location and speed to optimize shift timing to improve both comfort and… wait for it… fuel economy.
Chief executive officer Torsten Muller-Otvos declared hybrid and plug-in hybrids are not in the cards for Rolls-Royce, with the manufacturer being more interested in making the jump to pure electric instead of wasting time on interim steps of electrification. As a consequence, don’t expect the Phantom and Cullinan to go all eco-friendly, at least not for the time being.
The spied prototype, which wears German plates titled in Munchen, also borrows the coach doors from its three-box brother. On closer inspection, the ultra-luxury automaker couldn’t do otherwise with rear doors as small as those. And by small, please take a look at the proportion of the vehicle per se compared to the rear doors, and you’ll figure out what “small” actually means.
From a design standpoint, there’s no denying the squared-off Cullinan is a far more attractive proposition than the BMW brand’s future full-size SUV, the too-big grilled X7 that’s scheduled to start production in 2018. And even though the taillights are not the real deal, this prototype holds promise for when the time comes and R-R decides to take the veils off the production-spec Cullinan SUV.
Riding on an aluminum spaceframe, the high-riding Roller is powered by the same 6.75-liter twin-turbo V12 employed by the Phantom. Horsepower and torque remain a mystery at this point in time, but the transmission is no mystery. It’s the ZF 8HP, and it’s linked to an all-wheel-drive system, as well as a GPS receiver that analyzes the location and speed to optimize shift timing to improve both comfort and… wait for it… fuel economy.
Chief executive officer Torsten Muller-Otvos declared hybrid and plug-in hybrids are not in the cards for Rolls-Royce, with the manufacturer being more interested in making the jump to pure electric instead of wasting time on interim steps of electrification. As a consequence, don’t expect the Phantom and Cullinan to go all eco-friendly, at least not for the time being.