In a recent interview, Rolls-Royce CEO Torsten Müller-Otvös said the luxury British automaker will not be building any hybrid vehicles any time soon, and that Rolls-Royce plans to stick with its unique 12-cylinder engine for the time being. Müller-Otvös stated when the time comes, the brand will go fully electric instead, he told Bloomberg.
“It’s great that BMW Group is so forward-looking and -thinking on iNext and so on,” said Müller-Otvös. “I’m glad that I’m part of the bigger group [BMW], because we profit from that. Our engineers are embedded enough in the overall organization to grab into the shelf and say, ‘That’s great, we’ll use that for Rolls-Royce.’” He stated that without the help of BMW, Rolls-Royce would be unable to electrify its lineup.
Rolls-Royce won’t have any issues selling its Cullinan SUV according to him either, claiming that buyers of the SUV want the presence that the vehicle offers, and are not concerned with the fuel economy or the environmental impact of the vehicle.
However, there aren’t any plans to increase the production volume or lower the exclusivity of the Rolls-Royce lineup. According to the automaker’s boss, there aren’t any current plans to adapt the fuel-efficient V8 in the Cullinan.
“Customers will tell you the same thing that I am telling you, that they expect from us limitation. Limitation in volume,” he added. “They don’t want to see their own cars all over the place. And they are more than happy to pay our prices, make no error. They are clear: ‘Don’t go volume, please.’ Müller-Otvös continued, “We aren’t going to, ever.”