Rolls-Royce Savors Blowout Demand for SUV Starting at $325,000
(Bloomberg) -- Rolls-Royce Motor Cars is having a hard time meeting demand for its Cullinan sport utility vehicle, as the high-end British automaker's biggest-ever model has proved popular with its ultra-rich clientele.
Production of the SUV, which starts at $325,000 before customization -- and almost all Rolls-Royce customers go for bespoke additions -- is booked solid until the fourth quarter of 2019, Chief Executive Officer Torsten Mueller-Oetvoes said.
“It's exceeding our expectations,” Mueller-Oetvoes said Tuesday in an interview at the Geneva International Motor Show. “We have customers that aren't patient and want their car tomorrow, so we're doing the occasional Saturday shift to meet demand.”
Rolls-Royce, owned by Munich-based premium-auto maker BMW AG, aimed the Cullinan squarely at the SUV-loving American market when it was launched in September. The model is also finding a lot of fans in Russia and Canada, two markets that weren't as big for the U.K. company before, Mueller-Oetvoes said.
“The all-wheel drive is attractive for those markets,” he said.
To contact the reporter on this story: Oliver Sachgau in Geneva at osachgau@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Anthony Palazzo at apalazzo@bloomberg.net, Tom Lavell, Craig Trudell
©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
-
Talking Points This Week: Tech Nerves, FII Buying, And A Faraway Banking Shock
The global markets are not shining this Diwali. The exception in the large markets is, India.
-
Midterm Rally Lasted A Day. The Hard Reality Of A Divided US May Last Two Years | Opinion
Between a contested AI boom, a debt ceiling that arrives in 2027 and a president with every incentive to act alone, the next two years may prove more volatile than the first day's rally suggests.
-
Blue Wave Will Derail the AI Trade but Won't Dismantle the AI Era | Unhedged Position
The Democrats' sweep of the US Congress will see politics collide with economic forces both over the long and short term.
-
It's Time To Take The GST Council's Bet On Trust Global
Payment records can prove India's services exports, and clear, proportionate rules can bring foreign digital sellers into the tax net.
-
Opinion | India at 38: From Innovation Overperformer to Innovation Powerhouse
India now has 453 VC-backed deep science startups, 18 of them late-stage, after 117 percent growth since 2020. Laurus Labs, at USD 9.3 billion, is the most valuable deep science company in any middle-income economy outside China.
-
Navigating Energy Crossroads: S Jaishankar's Call For Diversified Supply Chains At G20 Ministerial Meeting
As geopolitical fault lines continue to test maritime trade routes and commodity flows, Jaishankar's message remains pertinent: true economic resilience requires open markets, protected transit lines, and a genuine commitment to multilateral cooperation rather than coercion.
-
Indians Are Travelling, But Not Every Journey Is A Holiday | The Week In Whys
Pilgrims, patients and working women are the real travellers, and the system hasn't quite caught up with them.
-
Getting To Work Costs Women More | The Reason Why
It is not just about women paying more than men. It is about women paying much more in cities than in villages.
-
AI Bias In Investing Cannot Be Eliminated, But It Can Be Governed
Framing is a particularly important example as identical financial information presented in terms of gains rather than losses can lead an LLM to reach a different assessment.
