Rolls Royce is a car manufacturer with a long history, and a history of building its over-sized, super-luxury limousines solidly. The next Rolls Royce Phantom, and future Rolls Royce cars more generally, though, will use modern manufacturing techniques and the same materials used on the Tesla Model S, with an aluminium chassis and body that saves weight and adds strength, albeit at the cost of more complex design requirements.
The eighth-generation Rolls Royce Phantom will be the first car that the company makes using the new aluminium architecture, and we’re told that that design has taken “another significant step forward”. The current Phantom will end its production life on 31 December 2016, and the new model won’t be introduced until 2018, so there’ll be a gap of at least a year where dealers will sell through the existing stock they have on hand; apparently Rolls-Royce is building a number of highly bespoke, one-off cars to satisfy current demand as well as more vehicles within its Bespoke Collection. At around $750,000 as a starting point for a Rolls in Australia, though,
Apparently the hulking Phantom isn’t going anywhere any time soon: “To paraphrase Mark Twain, reports of Phantom’s death are greatly exaggerated,” said Torsten Müller-Ötvös, Chief Executive Officer, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars. “The huge level of demand for Phantom VII, which we will fulfill well into 2017, clearly demonstrates that the Rolls-Royce customer and patron of true luxury will accept no compromise when considering the purchase of a super-luxury motor car, and will not be seduced by mass-luxury brands.” [Rolls Royce]