Exclusive pictures: new Rolls-Royce Cullinan

The wait is over - join us for an exclusive tour of Goodwood's new SUV

Steve Cropley Autocar

by Steve Cropley

10 May 2018

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After years of will-they-won’t-they? rumours, Rolls-Royce has finally unveiled its new SUV.

Named Cullinan, the new car aims to be the pinnacle of SUVs, pushing the segment into a rarefied pricing arena not even entered by the rival Bentley Bentayga, which we first saw in 2015. Pricing for the new car is not yet available, but we estimate it will start at £250,000 in the UK and around $400,000 in the United States.

Rolls-Royce gave Autocar access to the car ahead of the unveil, giving us the chance to photograph the car in detail – join us for an exclusive tour…
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Cullinan

First, the name: Cullinan is the world’s largest raw diamond, found in South Africa in 1905 and now part of the Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom.

Now the car: the idea of a Rolls-Royce SUV has simmered for over a decade, but was finally greenlit because Rolls-Royce owners had been persistently asking for such a model.
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Practical luxury

Rather than being a mere high-bodied luxury car, Cullinan is a full-capability off-roader “able to do whatever a Range Rover can do”, while retaining the refinement and luxury of a limousine.

Cullinan is Rolls-Royce’s first SUV in 112 years — if you discount some extraordinary armoured saloon-based fighting vehicles of the World War One era and after.
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New architecture

It's also the company’s first-ever 4x4, a great leap forward especially if you consider that Cullinan’s system is a latest-tech, electronically controlled, highly configurable permanent all-wheel drive set-up.

This is only the second new Rolls to use an all-new, highly flexible aluminium spaceframe architecture introduced recently with the latest Phantom 8 limousine and earmarked for every future Rolls-Royce, including the next-generation Ghost.
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Size & weight

In Cullinan, body rigidity is a particular feature: the new Phantom’s spaceframe is already 30% stiffer that its predecessor’s, and the Cullinan is stiffer still.

The Cullinan is a very large car against the Bentley Bentayga and the extended wheelbase Range Rover. At 5341mm (210in) it is a clear 200mm (8in) longer overall than Bentayga and 141mm (6in) longer than the longest Range Rover.

Its 3295mm wheelbase (130in - 300mm (12in) longer than a Bentayga) is a particularly telling feature, promising big interior space and adding credence to Rolls-Royce’s claim of a “magic carpet ride”. The Cullinan’s quoted kerb weight is 2660kg (5864 lb) , 100kg (220 lb) more than the Phantom’s official figure and 200kg (441 lb) more than the Bentley.
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Engineering

The Cullinan’s self-levelling air suspension is a “thorough re-engineering” of the Phantom’s layout. Mostly, it gets air struts with more volume to provide relaxed ride rates over a longer travel plus reinforced and axles.

The 4x4 system’s drive runs forward to the front wheels from the rear of the gearbox, but there’s no high-low range split. However, a so-called 'Everywhere' button switches a dozen powertrain and suspension elements to meet any bigger off-road challenges, and it’s possible to sharpen your Cullinan’s behaviour more by special settings for conditions like snow, rock-crawling and sand.
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Engine

Barring the drive to the front wheels, the Cullinan’s V12 powertrain is very similar to that of the new Phantom. It has the now familiar 6.75-litre twin-turbo petrol V12, part-built at BMW’s specialist engine plant in Munich and installed in Goodwood in England.

Famous for smoothness and quietness, its 563bhp is developed at a relaxed 5000rpm, while the peak torque of 627lb ft occurs at just 1600rpm, ideal both for off-roading and relaxed luxury motoring.
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Performance & economy

Rolls-Royce limits the Cullinan’s top speed to 155mph - a standard Bentayga can hit 187mph - and is also coy about quoting a 0-60mph time, though it hardly matters. With a little more weight and less torque than Bentayga, which does 0-60mph in 4.0sec, the Rolls can surely lay down a five-second run, an eye-watering performance for such a big car.

The combined mpg of 18.8mpg and CO2 of 341 g/km won’t impress, though they’re unlikely to deter prospective owners, either. A plug-in hybrid version is expected to be offered down the road, using BMW technology.
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Design

One reason for Cullinan’s impressive overall length is its use a “three-box” layout — in effect a classic, high-riding SUV shape with a short bustle-back that both improves the Cullinan’s profile and accommodates luggage more easily. There’s a split tailgate that opens both upwards and downwards to provide both shelter on rainy days and a low loading lip.

The Cullinan’s styling is upright and quite formal, though Rolls is at pains to emphasise that the car works just as well when painted in brighter, “everyday” colours and with informal interior hardware and texture choices as it does in more formal finishes. “With other Rolls-Royces,” says designer Giles Taylor, “the occupants’ involvement with the car ends with the arrival. Cullinan takes them off-road or to the beach and waits, which makes it a more practical, less formal kind of car.”
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Height & lights

Cullinan’s height, its big glass-to-metal ratio its fairly short rear overhang make it look deceptively compact. The high, prow-like bonnet rides above a traditional, hand-polished stainless steel grille.

The lights and intakes are set more deeply into the body than on a saloon, and the whole car consists at the front of a system of strong vertical and horizontal lines that the designers reckon imply strength and power) but the whole thing is given a more sporty mein by the fact that the roofline drops noticeably behind the B-pillar.

Rolls calls Cullinan a three-box SUV, with a nod to the protruding rear styling of so-called D-back Rolls-Royce saloons in the 1930s. Giles Taylor praises the role of the flexible architecture in his overall Cullinan design. “It let me put wheels and roof in exactly the right places…”
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Inside

Cullinan’s interior is the usual paragon of Rolls quality and style, with a hint of natural conservatism and an innate simplicity about the controls and instruments. Rolls has long protected its owners from the sensory overload that can be caused by banks of dials, screens, switches and levers.

The fascia, its upper half trimmed with durable and impressive new “box grain” leather (you might find it on a Leica camera) has another material below, perhaps wood.
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Starting up

As you unlock your Cullinan with the key, or touch its doorhandle, the body lowers 40mm for easy access. It rises again when you thumb the starter and the rear coach doors. Inside, there’s a flat floor, a legacy of the SUV format and the new architecture.

Despite talk of simplicity Cullinan can bristle with an impressive array of equipment that includes four-camera surround visibility, night vision, head-up display, a wi-fi hotspot, an alertness assistant and more.
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Top trunk

The tailgate is powered, of course, and opens to reveal an optional “recreation module”, a superbly made container filled with tools for whatever activity you favour, from croquet to drone racing.

Our demo car had a Viewing Suite, two comfortable fold-out chairs and a little table, perfect for taking outdoor cocktails or watching a point-to-point. Rolls-Royce is determined that a Cullinan will play its full part in its new owner’s lifestyle.
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Launch

Due in full-scale production in the second half of 2018 for first sales just before Christmas, Cullinan is one of the principal reasons why Rolls-Royce has been investing heavily to re-configure its two key manufacturing facilities:

The aluminium body “centre of excellence” at Unterhollerau near Munich, where there will soon be two body lines for all models, and at the flagship engine and final assembly plant at Goodwood, southern England, where every Rolls-Royce, regardless of body style, will in future be made on a single, highly adaptable production line.
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New horizons

Rolls-Royce is expecting big things of the Cullinan. As well as anticipating new interest in markets such as India and Russia that especially suit Cullinan’s “Effortless, Everywhere” message, the company expects take-up from younger, more active, outdoor-loving buyers.

As ever, Rolls people won’t talk specifics on sales volume but agree Cullinan is likely to become the best-selling Rolls on offer. Annual volume for the marque, currently 4000 units, could easily swell to 6000, and given that most buyers spend big on custom equipment these days, it could lift Rolls onto a new plane of profitability.
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Special

For all the Cullinan’s comparative practicality, the company insists its unique qualities should not be lost. “It’s a very special car,” says Giles Taylor, “literally the most versatile pinnacle we can imagine.”

Scroll onto see further pictures of the Rolls-Royce Cullinan, including with different colours and in different situations.
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