Details emerge on next-gen Rolls-Royce Phantom

May 18, 2014
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Rolls-Royce is in the early stages of developing the next Phantom, and a report coming out of England gives us a clearer idea of what to expect from the range-topping sedan when it makes its debut.

Engineers are currently debating whether to continue building the yet-unnamed sedan on an aluminum platform or whether to switch to a combination of a carbon fiber body riding on an aluminum chassis, a solution already used on the all-electric BMW i3. Switching to carbon fiber would help the Phantom shed precious pounds, but BMW is not sure that its carbon fiber factory in Washington can handle extra capacity at this point.

Visually, Rolls-Royce’s next flagship will share some styling cues with the current Phantom but its overall design will be less conservative.

“I don’t feel boxed in by the [existing] design. We are treading an evolutionary path and have a defining vision of modernity,” explained Rolls-Royce Design Chief Giles Taylor in an interview with British magazine Autocar. “But if we are going to take the model forward, we need to retain the Rolls-Royce ‘golden section,’ a big part of which is the angle of the rear pillar. You get a lot of privacy behind that wide C-pillar. It’s part of the Phantom recipe,” he added.

Rolls’ next flagship sedan will retain its mighty V12 engine but it will likely come with a plug-in hybrid option in order to comply with looming emissions regulations in the United States and in Europe. Rolls-Royce has not revealed any technical details about its upcoming plug-in hybrid system but has previously hinted the bulk of the components will be sourced from the BMW parts bin in order to save money on research and development.

Additional details about the successor to the Rolls-Royce Phantom will emerge in the months leading up to its debut in 2017.

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