Currently reading: New Rolls-Royce Ghost: 'minimalist' design teased in new video

The second generation of the Flying Spur rival will be revealed later this year with a "pure and minimalist" design to reflect current trends

Rolls-Royce has outlined the new minimalist design philosophy behind the new Ghost in the first in a series of animated videos charting the development of the luxury saloon.

The second generation of the Bentley Flying Spur rival is due to be launched later this year and will reflect a new design trend of 'post opulence', a move by buyers of luxury products towards simplicity and minimalism.

Rolls-Royce boss Torsten Müller-Ötvös outlined the thinking behind that new philosophy in an open letter to customers recently. In the new video released by the firm on social media, design chief Henry Cloke has outlined how it has affected the Ghost’s design. He said the machine, recently spied testing at the Nürburgring, would feature fewer design lines and sharp edges.

Speaking in a voiceover for the video, Cloke said Ghost customers “don’t want grandeur or fuss; they want something pure and clean”.

He added: “We removed all unnecessary design. We deleted shutlines and pursued a minimal aesthetic, while ensuring that the new Ghost was unmistakably a Rolls-Royce. Along the way, we discovered that creating perfect simplicity is really, really complex.”

The Ghost will be built on an adapted version of the firm’s aluminium platform used for the Phantom and Cullinan, but Cloke noted it had been extensively modified due to the Ghost’s great focus on driving dynamics.

“To achieve it on new Ghost, we had to take huge steps, such as hand-welding aluminium bodies and sowing incredibly long, perfectly straight stitch lines. We had to find futuristic new materials, and to complement this, our engineers completely reconfigured our Rolls-Royce architecture. They distilled the experience of Ghost, embuing it with an incredibly pure and refined driving personality. 

“Clients expressed a desire for something even more refined and even more pure than their existing Ghost, but still in every respect a true Rolls-Royce.”

The animated video is the first of four that will be released in the build-up to the launch of the new Ghost.

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James Attwood

James Attwood, digital editor
Title: Acting magazine editor

James is Autocar's acting magazine editor. Having served in that role since June 2023, he is in charge of the day-to-day running of the world's oldest car magazine, and regularly interviews some of the biggest names in the industry to secure news and features, such as his world exclusive look into production of Volkswagen currywurst. Really.

Before first joining Autocar in 2017, James spent more than a decade in motorsport journalist, working on Autosport, autosport.com, F1 Racing and Motorsport News, covering everything from club rallying to top-level international events. He also spent 18 months running Move Electric, Haymarket's e-mobility title, where he developed knowledge of the e-bike and e-scooter markets. 

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405line 28 July 2020

Why??

Sounds to me as though like some of the RR customers were getting nervous about BMW and their bugs bunny cars styling "bleeding into" the RR styling and BMW have assured them that the cars that they have "paid down on" without seeing are not going to be something aimed at "people with no sense of restraint". I would suppose some people may have asked for their deposit back after seeing the 7 series especially. Just my thoughts as to why a company needed to tell "people" that.

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Peter Cavellini 28 July 2020

Bespoke.

 I guess you'd have to have owned a few to feel the difference between models?! Having experienced being a passenger in the backseat I can say it's quite a feeling of hush, relaxing even, but, when it's going faster you feel the G force you don't experience in lesser cars.