BMW base for next Phantom

Rolls-Royce is likely to build the replacement for its flagship model, the Phantom, on a platform from parent company BMW’s 7 Series, ditching the standalone chassis that has underpinned the uber-luxury saloon since its release a decade ago.

Although the relatively new Rolls-Royce Ghost rides on a version of the current 7 Series platform, the current Phantom -- launched in 2003 and subtly updated in 2012 – is based on its own aluminium spaceframe.

But Automotive News reports the next Phantom, due in 2016, will herald the end of the standalone strategy that’s helped make a success of it to date.

With the continuing legislative squeeze in the EU to rein in CO2 and other emissions, the new car will likely make plenty of use of weight-saving materials like carbon-fibre and aluminium.

While the Phantom occupies a price-no-issue spot in the auto market, platform sharing will undoubtedly help contain production costs if the car is to make use of expensive carbon-fibre.

Nevertheless, platform sharing at the super-luxury end of the market is riskier than in the volume segments, riven as it is with the possibility of brand dilution and the loss of exclusivity.

Daimler, more used to success than failure across its array of enterprises, found that out with its failed pitch at the automotive stratosphere with its revived Maybach badge.

More than once was the Maybach 57 (and LWB 62) derided as a tarted up Mercedes-Benz S Class – it even looked it – and the brand never gained traction.

Between its launch in 2002 and its demise in 2012, Maybach sold about 3000 cars. In 2010, it sold 157 worldwide. That same year, Rolls-Royce sold 2711 similarly priced units. By “similarly priced”, read mostly flagship Phantoms, against which the Maybach competed -- not entry-level Ghosts.

Not that platform sharing is a guaranteed deal-breaker. The steel-monocoque Ghost and Rolls’ newly launched Wraith coupe both sit on a platform derived from the 7 Series’, while Bentley’s Continental shares its basics with Volkswagen’s Phaeton and Audi’s A8.

But they’re entry-level models. Like the Phantom, Bentley’s top-end Mulsanne sits on a unique platform designed, developed and built at Crewe, reportedly at Bentley’s insistence against the wishes of Wolfsburg’s pursemen.

This means that of the three top-enders, the Maybach was the only one to draw heavily from the volume parts bin, and it’s the only one to have flopped.

Daimler plans to pitch a new Pullman limousine based on the new Mercedes-Benz S-Class, but it remains to be seen if it will go beyond Ghost/Continental territory to challenge the apogee models.

Automotive News suggests that pressure from below may draw Rolls downmarket into segments it has previously not entered. Although Bentley is set for a tilt at the SUV market in 2016, Goodwood continues to dismiss any ideas of such a vehicle.

However, a ‘shooting brake’ or some other kind of wagon model isn’t out of the question for Rolls-Royce in the mid-term.

In the meantime, the company has confirmed a mid-life freshen-up for the Ghost next year, with a drop-top Wraith looking increasingly likely to arrive in 2015.

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