Australia's most expensive SUV goes on sale

Forget your common Lambo Urus or even Bentley Bentayga. There’s a new king of the (private) school drop-off zone.

Rolls-Royce has sexed up its Cullinan SUV line-up with a new Black Badge variant. And the company says the new variant is the “darkest, most urban expression of a Black Badge motor car yet”!

Available for purchase now, the Rolls-Royce Cullinan Black Badge is priced from $760,000 plus on road costs.

Rolls Royce cautions, however, that “each Black Badge Cullinan is Bespoke, [so] actual pricing is dependent on customer specification”. So that means the million dollar SUV is potentially just around the corner…

Black Badge is the moniker Rolls-Royce uses to define its most performance orientated models.

The Rolls-Royce Cullinan Black Badge certainly appears to have the credentials to satisfy the designation. Its upgraded twin-turbo 6.75-litre V12 now delivers 600PS (441kW, up 21 from standard) and 900Nm (+50Nm) and trumpets the fact through an all-new and more vocal exhaust system. Both engine and gearbox calibrations have been tweaked for a touch more urgency.

The Rolls-Royce Cullinan Black Badge is the first vehicle built on Rolls-Royce’s proprietary Architecture of Luxury platform to be given the Black Badge treatment. Chassis changes included revised suspension settings and bespoke 22-inch wheels. The uprated braking system (promising more bite and less pedal travel) also features the marque’s first ever coloured brake caliper. Be still my giddy Aunt!

Says Rolls-Royce: “The high gloss Red paint has been specifically developed to withstand the rigours of elevated temperatures generated by the motor car’s uprated braking system while still offering a perfectly smooth finish befitting of Rolls-Royce.”

Inside the Cullinan Black Badge debuts Rolls-Royce’s Technical Carbon veneer.

“Inspired by masterpieces of urban architecture, a naked-weave carbon-fibre finish has been developed to create highly accurate repeating geometrical shapes that produce a powerful three-dimensional effect,” the company states.

“Each leaf of Technical Carbon is finished with six coats of lacquer before being left to cure for 72 hours then hand-polished to Rolls-Royce’s hallmark mirror finish. This process takes 21 days and is only deemed complete once every piece is inspected by a craftsperson to ensure complete reflective uniformity across each of the 23 pieces within the car.”

Of course there are myriad alternative options.

Introducing the Black Badge Cullinan, Torsten Müller-Ötvös, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars CEO stated: “Black Badge reflects the desires of a distinct group of Rolls-Royce clients: men and women who take risks, break rules and build success on their own terms. Indeed, before we launched Black Badge in 2016 the idea of creating a product that would satisfy this subversive cohort – that is highly dynamic and wilfully rebellious in aesthetic – caused a great deal of internal debate.

"However, once the marque’s designers, engineers and craftspeople began pursuing this dramatic alter ego, it became clear that these motor cars could not only exist comfortably beneath this revered and historic brand but they would define a new space within the super-luxury market. In this spirit, the time has come for Rolls-Royce’s boldest and darkest expression of Black Badge yet. The King of the Night, Black Badge Cullinan.”

Go Torsten!

Oh and did we mention you don’t have to specify your Rolls-Royce Cullinan Black Badge in Black?

In total there are more than 40,000 paint colours offered. At additional costs we’d hazard.