Currently reading: Rolls-Royce weighs up further range expansion

No models smaller than the Ghost are coming, but the Rolls-Royce brand could grow beyond its current range

Rolls-Royce is “searching to broaden the brand” beyond its existing models, according to company boss Torsten Müller-Ötvös.

However, he has confirmed there is “no pressure to grow” the brand, and that such a move would actually “be detrimental” to luxury. “Volumes are nonsense,” he said. “Customers don’t want to see other Rolls-Royces.” The company sold just over 4000 cars last year, with sales likely to head towards 5000 after the 2019 launch of the Cullinan SUV, which, Müller-Ötvös said, “will bring new buyers to the brand”.

He is now looking at how best to offer customers a broader model range within existing volumes. To that end, there will be no Phantom coupé or convertible models, their roles instead taken by the smaller Rolls-Royce Dawn and Rolls-Royce Wraith. There have also been recent additions of sportier Black Badge variants of those two models, along with the Ghost, and it’s this kind of diversification and deployment of resources that Müller-Ötvös is looking to expand upon.

Müller-Ötvös has also ruled out ever making a Rolls smaller than the Ghost.

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Mark Tisshaw

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Mark is a journalist with more than a decade of top-level experience in the automotive industry. He first joined Autocar in 2009, having previously worked in local newspapers. He has held several roles at Autocar, including news editor, deputy editor, digital editor and his current position of editor, one he has held since 2017.

From this position he oversees all of Autocar’s content across the print magazine, autocar.co.uk website, social media, video, and podcast channels, as well as our recent launch, Autocar Business. Mark regularly interviews the very top global executives in the automotive industry, telling their stories and holding them to account, meeting them at shows and events around the world.

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wheels 2 August 2017

success demand market

I guess the Rolls/BMW team would know more about success,demand and market for their products than any of us. just saying.

concinnity 28 July 2017

No two door versions. Really?

The most expensive Rolls Royce to date, the Sweptail is a coupe based on the old model Phantom coupe. Rolls Royce aren't going to turn away anyone with the right amount of money from buying a coupe or cabrio version of the new Phantom.

Nothing says 'I'm stinking rich' better than a less practical, more expensive, coupe version of a big limousine. The limo is ,after all, for those lesser rich people who stay in hotels and need to be picked up from airports in. They are like a very flash taxi for some hotels like The Peninsular in Hong Kong

Buy a Ghost instead? Pleeeease! Does Mercedes Benz tell someone who wants an S-class coupe to buy an E-class coupe instead? No, it builds them an S-class coupe instead and charges them handsomely for it.

Judging by the sales success of the previous coupe models, there is a demand. Where there's a demand, there's a market.
If Rolls Royce doesn't make them, someone else will, and they'll charge more for it and do a lesser job. Why would Rolls Royce turn away the very lucrative business?

No, they wouldn't. Coupes and Cabrios will come. Customers want them. And are very happy to pay even more money for them.