Rolls-Royce Cullinan spotted testing in Germany

Less than four months after the company officially announced its plans to make its first ever SUV, the car’s first test mule has been spotted testing in Germany. Internally called Cullinan, the test mule was recently spotted undergoing trials near BMW’s development centre in Bavaria, in a visibly shortened body shell of a Phantom Series II.

Rolls-Royce has openly admitted that ‘Cullinan’, which happens to be the name of the largest diamond ever found, is just a temporary name of the project and that the production model will sport a different moniker. Though the prototype is still in its early stages, we know that the Cullinan will be built around a completely new aluminium chassis, with its own bespoke suspension system. We can notice heavy camouflage inside the car, covering parts of the dashboard, which indicates that the test mule is already using a new cabin meant for the SUV.

While Rolls-Royce had so far stayed away from this highly lucrative segment, the rapid growth in the sales of premium SUVs seems to have convinced the British manufacturer to explore new avenues. Going by the rate at which the sales of premium SUVs has been escalating in the recent times, Rolls-Royce should have no problem is achieving its target of selling around 1,500 of these SUVs, every year.