cars news 10: Rolls-Royce Vision Next 100 Is a Lesson In Future Class

Celebrating its centenary, BMW has built four unique concepts meant to show the company’s idea of what the future of its brands may bring. We’ve already seen BMW’s own Vision Next 100 (the term BMW is using to describe these concepts), and now we have Rolls-Royce showing off its dramatic concept.

The Rolls-Royce Vision Next 100 has an undeniable Rolls-Royce character, with a long hood, signature vertical grille, Spirit of Ecstasy, immense wheels, and, of course, a suicide-hinged door. Where the concept’s design departs from current Rolls-Royces however, is in the gullwing top portion of the single door, the immediacy of the rear’s rake, the heavy use of carbon fiber, the matchless interior, and the gaping negative space between the wheels, hood and grille, giving it a Formula 1 car presence.

Rolls-Royce states that the Vision Next 100’s design “presents an intriguing and aesthetically dynamic vision of the future of luxury mobility—a completely personal, effortless and autonomous Rolls-Royce experience, wrapped in a design that ensures a ‘Grand Sanctuary’ for its occupants, and a ‘Grand Arrival.’”

While the materials and craftsmanship of the interior are clearly Rolls-Royce, the car is autonomous and doesn’t require any steering wheel, pedals, or any other mechanical linkage giving Rolls-Royce the space to create a warm, inviting, and comfortable cabin to ferry passengers in style and grace, just as a Rolls-Royce should. However, Rolls-Royce did include one anachronism in the interior of the concept, the analog clock, which is featured prominently in the center of the dash.

A further departure is the lack of a gasoline powered engine. Here, the Vision Next 100 concept ushers away past for a fully-electric, fully-futuristic powertrain, furthering the quiet grace that Rolls-Royce has come to embody.

The Vision Next 100 additionally harnesses “the power of the virtual space to bring the experience of the Vision Next 100 closer to those unable to personally see the vehicle in London,” with a 360 CGI experience (see below) that takes viewers from Rolls-Royce’s factory in Goodwood, through the company’s vision of the future of luxury.

Rolls-Royce states that it “intimately understands its patrons and their likely desires and motivations in the future,” and given that relationship, Rolls-Royce set the designers four key tenets rooted in the history and spirit of the company when designing the Vision Next 100: The Personal Vision; The Effortless Journey; The Grand Sanctuary; and The Grand Arrival.

“Today, Rolls-Royce, the world’s leading luxury brand, has defined the future of luxury mobility. The Grand Arrival of the Rolls-Royce VISION NEXT 100 boldly points to a bright future for our marque where our patrons’ individual demands for complete and authentic personalisation will be met through an exquisite fusion of technology, design and hallmark Rolls-Royce craftsmanship,” said Torsten Müller-Ötvös, Rolls-Royce’s Chief Executive Officer in a statement.

Source: Rolls-Royce