Just_me

It seems Rolls-Royce CEO Ian Robertson can’t keep his mouth shut surrounding information about the luxury marque’s forthcoming new entrant. After revealing production details for the new model back at February’s Geneva Motor Show, Robertson has been spilling the beans with Reuters at this week’s Shanghai Auto Show.

“We are working on a smaller car,” Robertson said, mentioning that it will cost roughly one third less than the Phantom saloon but remaining above BMW’s flagship 7-Series. Rolls-Royce has been enjoying great success with the Phantom but it still hasn’t met is original goal of selling 1,000 units annually. But this new model should change all that, with Robertson saying “we should more than double our overall sales with a broader market.”

Production is scheduled to start in the not too distant future. “The design is finished and the first prototypes should be running very shortly,” he said, adding that the plant in Crewe will soon be upgraded with a second production line to accommodate the new model.

Unlike the floundering Maybach brand, Rolls-Royce is moving from strength to strength, The company announced at the Shanghai show that its 80th showroom in the world has just been opened in Chengdu bringing its total in China to 5. The country is easily Rolls-Royce’s fastest growing market and two new dealerships are planned to be opened within the next 12 months making China second only to the US.

Mr. M

The Flying Spur is dying to have a competitor from RR.

mercmad

The FS is dying not to get competition from RR... If it does then it is going to take a lot of sale away from Bentley IMO

Bartek Sikorski

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Ian Robertson, CEO of Rolls-Royce confirmed in an interview with Reuters at the 2007 Shanghai Auto Show that the company has finished designing for a new small - ONLY REGISTERED AND ACTIVATED USERS CAN SEE ALL LINKS - CLICK HERE TO REGISTER and the first prototypes should be on their way very shortly. The car will be a very attractive car for China, he added. The average price of a Rolls-Royce in China is around $900,000, but last year the company sold one for $2.3 million. Rolls-Royce will add two new dealerships in China in the coming year for a total of seven, a network that is second only to the United States.

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SDNR

I don't necessarily think this is the case. Bentley has a very strong image. Don't forget when Rolls-Royce and Bentley were still being produced side by side, by the late 1990s Rolls' sales were 10% of Bentley's. The Bentley image is far less pretentious and probably more appealing to many. The Rolls-Royce brand image does come with a lot of "baggage" -- for what ever reason, people do tend to associate Rolls-Royce with snoberry and the British class system.

Centurion

RR is very snoobish since the Phantom cost a fortune and is a chauffeur type of car, and the people who tend to be driven are often very fortunate. The "smaller" Rolls will remove the chauffeur stamp from the brand and make it more appealing to the younger crowd.
Will it be a Flying Spur competitor? No it won't. The Flying Spur is a relatively compromised Bentley, almost a bastard and is more of a S600 competitor. The new rolls will be positioned above them and will have a sticker price pined somewhere in the upper 100k spectrum. Standing between the S600 and the Arnage.

Imhotep Evil

Yep. The smaller RR will be above the FS.

YoUhimhER

finally RR is letting go of its pride and follow what bentley did with its line-up, wonder when maybach will follow suit. profitability is everything.

SDNR

Don't know what you're talking about "letting go of its pride" -- this new model will sit where the Silver Seraph was in the market. In other words, this new Rolls will be priced similarly to the current Bentley Arnage.

The Phantom models have always been the most expensive Rolls-Royces -- in fact, the previous Phantom model, the Phantom VI (produced untill 1992) was considerably more expensive than the current one.

YoUhimhER

i thought the silver seraphs was priced at 200k+, but based on the article it says the new model "will cost roughly one third less than the Phantom saloon," a phantom is around 330k to 400k in the us, one third of that is around 110k to 130k, and that's no where close to 200k of the previous silver seraph.
what i meant is it seems like they didnt wanna go down market like bentley did with its continental series, but now they cant achieve its sales goal, they have to put profit before pride.