MOBILITY/LUXURY/VISION: Like no other brand, Rolls-Royce stands for automotive luxury
Ultimate luxury for the future? Rolls-Royce VISION NEXT 100.
Rolls-Royce stands for automotive luxury like no other brand.
I recently reported on a study by Rolls-Royce. Here more information about it.
Just a few years after its founding in 1904, the Rolls-Royce was considered the best automobile in the world, true to Sir Henry Royce’s motto: „Strive for perfection in everything you do. Choose the best solution and improve it. If it doesn’t already exist, invent it.“
Adrian van Hooydonk, Head of BMW Group Design:
„The Rolls- Royce VISION NEXT 100 represents this pioneering spirit and has been designed as a visionary blueprint for the luxury mobility of the future. The vehicle opens up fascinating perspectives for the future of Rolls-Royce.“
The Rolls-Royce VISION NEXT 100 is the first pure automotive vision in the 112-year history of the brand.
– What does the luxury of the future look like?
– How do you transfer the exclusive character of a Rolls-Royce into the future?
– How will the demands of the Rolls-Royce clientele develop in the future? How could they even be surpassed by the Rolls-Royce typical striving for perfection?
– How do the traditional characteristics of Rolls-Royce – precision craftsmanship, inventiveness and a love of perfection – come together with future technologies and trends to define new standards of luxury for decades to come?
– How will a ride in a Rolls-Royce remain a unique experience in the future?
Today, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars already fulfills the most diverse customer wishes. There are virtually no limits to the individual equipment of a Rolls-Royce. The future will offer customers even more extensive opportunities to make their own Rolls-Royce truly unique. Technical basis of the
Rolls-Royce VISION NEXT 100 is an advanced lightweight platform equipped with a powerful electric drive system. From the wheelbase to the body shape, the character of the vehicle and its equipment can be tailored to individual customer requirements.
The Rolls-Royce design team believes that advances in composites and technologies will play an important role in the individualized manufacturing process of the future, providing inspiration for new design possibilities to meet the most exclusive individual desires of Rolls-Royce customers. The goal is to create an automotive bespoke equivalent of haute couture.
The Rolls-Royce VISION NEXT 100 therefore shows only one of a multitude of possible design manifestations of a Rolls-Royce of the future.
In doing so, the Rolls-Royce VISION NEXT 100 highlights the following key aspects for a new dimension of automotive luxury:
– „Personal Vision“: countless possibilities of future individual
Rolls-Royce one-offs
– „Grand Sanctuary“: the interior as a private retreat
– „Effortless Journey“: „Eleanor“ as virtual assistance
– „Grand Arrival“: the Rolls-Royce VISION NEXT 100 ensures the perfect staging of an elegant appearance when leaving the vehicle.
Personal Vision: countless possibilities of future individual Rolls-Royce one-offs.
The Rolls-Royce VISION NEXT 100 presents just one of countless possibilities for a completely individual one-off Rolls-Royce. It represents the consistent further development of an already unique Rolls-Royce experience: a new dimension of luxury.
Following in the tradition of the renowned coachbuilders of earlier decades, Rolls-Royce is developing the chassis of the future, handcrafted from state-of-the-art materials and featuring a zero-emission powertrain. Innovative production processes and materials open up new possibilities for customers to design their own individual Rolls-Royce: from wheelbase to body shape, customers can choose features and equipment. The
Rolls-Royce designers will create from this an individual complete work, a personal one-of-a-kind.
Grand Sanctuary – The interior as a private retreat.
In a Rolls-Royce, the passenger’s well-being and wishes are everything. The design of the interior is therefore the central starting point of the design: The passenger should enjoy his or her own individual interpretation of luxury there, and the interior becomes his or her personal retreat.
In creating the interior, the designers focused on pointed hierarchical lines, high-quality, sustainable and authentic materials, and a subtle use of light. This creates an oasis of calm and lightness, an ideal atmosphere for passengers to relax.
The designers thus created an inviting, purist space that perfectly showcases the intrinsic beauty of the materials.
In the Rolls-Royce VISION NEXT 100, for example, filigree Makassar ebony was used; the floor is covered with a carpet of hand-twisted silk, and the seats are upholstered in an exceptionally soft silk fabric. The concept as a fully autonomous vehicle makes the driver’s seat, steering wheel and instruments superfluous and enables a completely new feeling of space in an automobile.
Passengers in the Rolls-Royce VISION NEXT 100 enjoy the best view through the generously dimensioned panoramic window. No one disturbs the private atmosphere of the passengers. The analogue chronometer positioned centrally under the panoramic window is a symbol of time gained as the very highest form of luxury.
Effortless Journey: Eleanor as virtual assistant.
Another crucial goal of the designers was to integrate technology as unobtrusively as possible into the Rolls-Royce VISION NEXT 100, while at the same time offering the passenger seamless connectivity. Virtual intelligence is used to control the vehicle and fulfill all the wishes of passengers on the road. This is embodied by an ethereal Spirit of Ecstasy digital visualization on the large transparent OLED display. Her name‘ Eleanor honors Eleanor Thornton, who inspired sculptor Charles Robert Sykes to create the iconic Rolls-Royce radiator figure.
The longer Eleanor accompanies the passenger, the better she gets to know their interests and needs; for example, their favorite restaurants, artistic tastes and preferred routes. Of course, this also applies to the preferences and needs of all passengers traveling with her. Using voice control, passengers can communicate with Eleanor at any time to personalize their journey.
Grand Arrival: the Rolls-Royce VISION NEXT 100 ensures the perfect staging of an elegant appearance when leaving the vehicle.
Externally, the Rolls-Royce VISION NEXT 100 presents a timeless aesthetic. With a length of 5.9 meters, its silhouette appears powerfully elegant. The coupé-like shape and the free-standing wheel arches to the right and left of the Pantheon radiator grille lend the exterior both dynamism and lightness.
This elegance and lightness is further emphasized by the „Crystal Water“ exterior color and the Spirit of Ecstasy radiator mascot, sculpted from hand-cut crystal glass and illuminated from within.
Upon arrival, the Rolls-Royce VISION NEXT 100 will already attract attention with its impressive presence and exterior design. This is reinforced by a perfect staging for the passengers‘ exit. In a generous gesture, the roof and side door of the vehicle open to reveal the interior. Passengers can rise from their seats and walk upright out of the vehicle. The staging is additionally supported by a light projection that acts as a red carpet to show the way out of the vehicle. This turns every arrival into a Grand Arrival.
Should the situation make it necessary, two umbrellas integrated in the door opening ensure that passengers are protected from the weather. The vehicle concept has created space in the front of the vehicle for passengers‘ individually designed luggage. An intelligent mechanism opens a flap between the front wheel and side door and hands the luggage to the helping hands of the porter.
Giles Taylor, Design Director Rolls-Royce Motor Cars: „With the
Rolls-Royce VISION NEXT 100, we didn’t want to create a reminiscence of the past. We wanted to be as innovative as possible while showing how the brand’s design history could evolve.“
BRAND: Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Ltd.
virtualdesignmagazine Michael Hiller
