Rolls-Royce is a name that resonates far beyond the motor industry – claimed (by the company) to be the second-best known brand of any type across the world after Coca-Cola, the name has come to represent the very height of luxury, and the maker of the most desirable cars.
It is said that around 60% of all Rolls-Royce cars made are still operational today, a figure no other car manufacturer can come close to matching.
The Rolls-Royce reputation was formed in the earliest days of the marque, following the coming together of founders Henry Royce and Charles Rolls. It survived expansion and diversification, including into what today is a major aero engine business – but which also almost doomed the entire Rolls-Royce group.
Rolls-Royce’s car manufacturing also survived being nationalised, sold off and even being fought over by two of Germany’s biggest car manufacturers, before being reimagined in a form that today has the name but no other real relationship to the Rolls-Royce of old.
This doesn’t really matter because the Rolls-Royces of today, emerging from a still young grass-roofed factory in Sussex, are still regarded as the most aspirational luxury cars in the world, an image Rolls-Royce shows no sign of letting go of any time soon. Indeed, if ever a manufacturer was better placed to exploit the smooth, silent progress provided by the current transition to electric propulsion, it is Rolls-Royce.
So who or what is Rolls-Royce?
The seed that grew into the world’s best-known luxury car maker was sown in 1904 when Charles Rolls met Henry Royce in the then-brand-new Midland Hotel in Manchester.
Royce was fascinated by mechanics and, two years earlier, had purchased an expensive French car that he had immediately set about improving. His electric and mechanical engineering company was suffering a downturn in sales, so he produced three prototype cars with a view to diversifying into automobile manufacture.
Rolls, already renowned as a pioneer in both motoring and aviation, was impressed by Royce’s car and offered to take all that he could manufacture, with an agreement that they would wear Rolls-Royce badges. Four versions of the Rolls-Royce 10, with power outputs from 10 to 30hp, were unveiled in Paris in December 1904, and the company was officially formed two years later.
The involvement of Rolls did not last long. Having unsuccessfully tried to persuade Royce to design an aeroplane engine, in 1908 he became the second Briton to fly in a plane, piloted by one of the famed Wright brothers. Three years later, Rolls set a darker record as the first person killed in the crash of a powered plane in Britain, after the tail of his Wright Flyer broke away during a flying display.
Ironically, Rolls-Royce did make its first aircraft engine in 1914 and became a major aero manufacturer, as it remains today. The very last engine Royce designed before his death in 1933 was the Merlin, considered by many to have helped win the second world war due to its use in such planes as the Spitfire and the Lancaster bomber.
Through the inter-war years, Rolls-Royce became renowned for its upmarket vehicles, despite not making the most visible parts of its own cars. Until 1948, the company’s products consisted of chassis and engines, onto which bodies were built by specialist coachbuilders – two of the best known being Mulliner and Park Ward.
The company also began a one-model-at-a-time policy in 1908, when the 10 was discontinued in favour of the 40/50. One of the company directors had an early 40/50 finished in silver and named it the Silver Ghost, the name becoming attached to the model and many Rolls-Royce cars since. The 40/50 also formed the basis of the British Army’s first armoured car.
After the first world war, the company opened a short-lived production plant in the USA to ease pressure on its factory in Derby. The Phantom, replacing the Silver Ghost in 1925, cemented the company’s elite status – the initial version lasted in general production until the second world war, and subsequent versions were produced until the 1980s, though only for Heads of State.
Rolls-Royce took over luxury car rival Bentley in 1931 and, following the second world war, moved car production to Bentley’s plant in Crewe – this had been built by the government in 1938 to make aero engines for the war effort. Rolls-Royce now began building complete cars for the first time, taking over coachbuilders Park Ward and Mulliner, and also effectively reduced Bentleys to becoming little more than rebadged Rolls-Royces.
By the end of the 1960s, Rolls-Royce had grown into a major engineering and manufacturing group. Not only was ot building cars and engines used by a wide range of military and passenger aircraft, including Concorde, but also diesel engines employed in railway locomotives and ships. And it was an aero engine that almost brought the group down – delays and cost overruns developing a new passenger jet engine forced Rolls-Royce into receivership in 1971.
The luxury car division and aero engine business were nationalised and separated into new companies. Attempts to float the new Rolls-Royce Motors began in 1973, but with little success. Finally, in 1980, it was sold to engineering conglomerate Vickers.
Vickers struggled to make headway with its pair of luxury car brands, and after 25 years, it had had enough. A bidding war broke out between German rivals BMW and Volkswagen, which VW looked to have won with a larger bid. The company soon discovered, however, that while it had successfully acquired the Crewe factory, all of the cars and even the rights to use the distinctive radiator grille and ‘Spirit of Ecstasy’ mascot, the one thing it did not have was the right to use the name Rolls-Royce, which was still owned by the aero engine manufacturer (Rolls-Royce Holdings) and merely licensed to Vickers.
To Volkswagen’s disbelief, BMW had quietly done a deal with Rolls-Royce Holdings to secure exclusive rights to use the name Rolls-Royce for a motor car company. BMW was also supplying the engines for every Rolls-Royce and Bentley at the time, a contract it could withdraw from if it wanted to, so Volkswagen’s victory was looking decidedly shaky.
Inevitably, a deal was thrashed out. BMW ended up with Rolls-Royce and Volkswagen got Bentley, and the two conjoined brands were separated for the first time in 70 years. Both would be completely reborn under their new owners, but Rolls-Royce’s rebirth was all the more dramatic as BMW started from a completely clean sheet, while Volkswagen continued building upgraded versions of existing Bentleys from the existing factory.
BMW set about building a brand-new facility at Goodwood, adjacent to the famed motor racing circuit in Sussex. The last Crewe-built Rolls-Royce was completed in 2002 and in the following year the first of an all-new line of Rolls-Royce cars started coming off the production line in Sussex.
Today’s Rolls-Royce Motor Cars has proven highly successful, maintaining the brand’s reputation for ultimate luxury, but it has no real connection with the firm started in 1904. In practical terms, that firm’s spiritual successor is the Crewe-based Bentley Motors Ltd.
What models does Rolls-Royce have and what else is coming?
The current Rolls-Royce line-up spans four separate models, all extremely exclusive – the brand’s total sales in 2024 were 5,712 cars (around 2,000 fewer than the likes of Audi and BMW sell in the UK each month). If you do fancy owning your own Rolls-Royce, a mere £290,000 will buy you a Ghost, while for the flagship Phantom you will need at least £435,000…
The Phantom was the first current-era Rolls-Royce, with production of the ‘seventh generation’ model beginning in 2003. The current eighth-generation version replaced it in 2017 and is the company’s flagship, dubbed the most luxurious car in the world. It’s powered by a 6.8-litre BMW petrol engine and comes in two lengths, a standard version and one stretched by 20cm (for extra rear legroom), making it – at just under six metres – the longest saloon car currently sold.
Over the years, various versions of the Phantom have been made, including a coupe, a convertible (known as the Drophead Coupe in Rolls-Royce house-speak), and even a one-off version called the Sweptail that took four years to build and became the most expensive new car ever sold at an eye-watering $12.8 million.
It is possibly the biggest ever mis-use of a phrase to describe the Ghost saloon as the entry-level to Rolls-Royce ownership, but it does cost £100,000 less than a Phantom.
Smaller than its sibling, the Ghost was launched in 2010 – the current version first appeared in 2020. A convertible, called the Dawn, used the same chassis as the Ghost and was sold between 2015 and 2023, as was the Wraith, a two-door hard-top.
Current Rolls-Royce range on our Expert Rating Index
Even Rolls-Royce has not been immune to the rise of the SUV. The Cullinan, which arrived in 2018 and was mildly facelifted in 2024, shares many of its components with the Phantom. An unsurprisingly controversial addition to the Rolls-Royce range, the car offers all the interior luxury one expects but its fuel consumption is stratospheric…
Finally, there is the Spectre – the first entry by Rolls-Royce into the electric vehicle (EV) market and also the most aerodynamic Rolls yet. Even the Spirit of Ecstasy statuette received a smoothed-out update for this car. Described as one of the most desirable EVs in the world, it combines the height of luxury with zero-emission travel.
The Spectre is the first glimpse into the future of Rolls-Royce, which is all about electric power. It’s a form of propulsion that eminently suits the luxury image of the brand, though its internal combustion-engined cars are so quiet they could be mistaken for EVs – the Ghost alone has 100kg of sound-absorbing material built into it.
The Spectre is due to be joined by a second electric car in coming months, and Rolls-Royce recently confirmed that it intends to meet a 2022 promise to phase out its combustion-engined cars by 2030.
Where can I try a Rolls-Royce car?
Should you ever be in a position to purchase a new Rolls-Royce, ordering it will be a major event which you won’t mind travelling for – and you will likely have to, as the brand has just seven showrooms in the UK – in London, Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, Edinburgh, Dunmow (in Essex) and Sunningdale (in Berkshire).
As one might expect, each facility is as plush as the cars, designed to cosset the buyer as they spend several hours specifying each detail of their car – these are not places that one drops into for a look around…
What makes Rolls-Royce different to the rest?
In a word, luxury. While manufacturers such as Bentley and even Porsche claim to produce luxury models, Rolls-Royce takes the phrase to a whole new level. To travel in a Rolls-Royce is more akin to being in one of the world’s very top-level hotels – for example it’s hard to distinguish an electric Rolls-Royce from a petrol-engined one because the latter’s engine is completely silent.
Rolls-Royces take a minimum of 400 hours to build. The details extend to the fitting in the rear cabin of fridges with two chilling settings, to suit the different correct serving temperatures for vintage and non-vintage champagne. The pin stripes on the exteriors are all hand-painted, leathers rejected for the car’s interiors are passed on for use in the high-end fashion industry – the superlatives go on…
Every car is individually specified to its buyer – one famed example saw an image of a peregrine falcon stitched into the ceiling for a client, the work taking a month and 250,000 stitches. Then there is the famed Starlight Headliner, an option on the Phantom; it comprises up to 1340 hand-woven optical fibres that gently twinkle to represent a star-filled night, with the owner choosing their preferred constellation – no two versions are the same.
That client list comprises the world’s uber-wealthy, including Royal families and leaders of nations around the globe. This brand’s reputation as the maker of the most desirable cars in the world has been carefully crafted over more than century and no other manufacturer even considers trying to outdo Rolls-Royce.
A Rolls-Royce fact to impress your friends
The famous ‘Spirit of Ecstasy’ sculpture of a female figure with flowing wing-like robes that all Rolls-Royce cars wear on their bonnets has had a chequered history.
It was originally commissioned by Baron John Edward Scott-Montagu, an early car enthusiast, who is said to have based it on his secretary (and mistress) Eleanor Thornton. According to some historians, Thornton was also said to have had an affair with the sculptor, Charles Sykes…
The Spirit of Ecstasy is considered so important to the Rolls-Royce image that when BMW gained the rights to make the cars in 1998, it was willing to pay $40m to Volkswagen to secure the statuette and the equally distinctive grille above which it sits.
Summary
Rolls-Royce is a manufacturer like no other, with a name that has transcended a mere badge on a car to signify the pinnacle of luxury. The reputation has survived a wholesale change under the ownership of BMW and today ownership of a Rolls-Royce remains an ambition only the ultra-successful, ultra-wealthy can ever seriously aspire to.
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