Written by Keith WR Jones Updated: 6 June 2024

Overview

The Rolls-Royce Cullinan luxury SUV caused some controversy when it was launched in 2018 – but super-rich buyers have voted with their wallets, and it became a key driver of Rolls-Royce’s growth in recent years. Those buyers are now on average younger, from a greater variety of backgrounds, and much more inclined to drive their Rolls themselves rather than luxuriate in the back while a chauffeur takes the wheel.

What they’ve liked so much – enough to make them overlook its grim styling – is that it’s a Rolls-Royce but with the perceived benefits of an SUV. It has a commanding driving position, a feeling (for better or worse) of bossing the road and some genuine off-road ability.

There’s no getting away from the fact that it’s big and heavy, but it is very enjoyable to drive, with its reassuringly accurate steering and a creamy twin-turbo V12 engine.

There are no direct rivals. The Bentley Bentayga and Range Rover do many of the same things but, in their feel and details, they offer a slightly different kind of luxury, and they’re dynamically sharper. A lot less expensive too. The Ferrari Purosangue and Aston Martin DBX are less seriously intended for off-road use, but tap into some of the same desires.

Newly available to order from mid-2024 is the Series II – the Rolls-Royce name for a mid-life facelift. This revised Cullinan has new daytime running lights, reshaped air intakes and exhaust surrounds and some other minor bodywork adjustments. The wheels are bigger – up from 22 to 23 inches – and the suspension tweaked accordingly. Inside there’s a new facia and some infotainment upgrades.

What’s it like inside?

You can specify the Cullinan with four or five seats. Either way, it’s extremely roomy. The boot is a useful 600 litres, or 1930 with the rear seats folded, and access is easy thanks to a top-hinged hatch and a bottom-hinged lower section.

The cabin is more digital than before, but that’s still mixed with many physical switches and dials. The driver’s instruments are digital, with a central screen that can be operated by touch or by the iDrive rotary controller, and many functions can also be operated by voice.

There are soft keys under the touchscreen for quick access to the most-used functions, which are very welcome. Mercifully, the Cullinan’s heater controls are entirely physical, making it easy to adjust them accurately on the move without taking your eyes off the road.

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There’s a new pillar-to-pillar glass dashboard, similar to that seen first in the Ghost and then the Spectre. This differs in that it incorporates a small analogue clock and, below it, the Rolls-Royce ‘Spirt of Ecstasy’ emblem, subtly illuminated.

Front and rear, the seats are not particularly plush but they are multi-adjustable and well shaped to support you comfortably over long distances.

The overall experience in the back seats is glorious. Take your shoes off, enjoy the carpet, adjust the air-con to your precise requirements, and revel in the vast amounts of room in every direction.

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It’s all very hushed, even at those times when the driver is making haste. It feels more like floating than riding along on big wheels. And you get to look up at the fake night sky courtesy of hundreds of LEDs placed in the headlining.

Rolls-Royce Cullinan engines

There’s one engine – a 48-valve twin-turbo 6.75-litre V12. It’s essentially the same unit you’ll find in the Phantom and Ghost, and it produces a whopping 571hp and 850Nm of torque. That colossal grunt is sent to all four wheels via an eight-speed automatic transmission. You also get four-wheel steering, principally to help with tighter corners, and an Off-Road mode that adjusts the transmission and increases the ride height by 40mm on the air suspension.

The Cullinan’s petrol tank is a big 100 litres, but it needs to be because the fuel consumption is anything but frugal. Rolls-Royce claims official figures of between 16.8 and 17.7mpg, but on our test drives in the Series II we saw much worse figures.

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Expect about 400 miles of range unless you’re driving exceptionally smoothly. This is short of what you can expect in a hybrid SUV such as the Bentayga or the far more affordable BMW X5.

The Cullinan’s CO2 emissions are similarly horrendous at 363–380g/km. Roll on the electric Rolls SUV… although that’s still several years away, we understand.

What it’s like to drive?

The Cullinan drives a lot like a Phantom, but taller. So, it’s very smooth, quiet and pleasingly rapid when you want it to be, yet it steers with a surprising amount of fluidity and accuracy for a car of this type.

The ride quality is exceptionally good. It takes a very poor road surface to unsettle it, or over-vigorous cornering. The brakes feel slightly underpowered, although that only becomes apparent on those rare occasions when you use the formidable amounts of torque at your disposal. More typically, it’s a very good feeling to have so much potency in reserve.

There’s a Low button that activates a ‘sport’ mode of sorts, by holding a lower gear for longer when you’re accelerating and firming the controls up slightly. But that sort of driving isn’t really what the Cullinan is all about.

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Much of the credit for the smooth ride quality should go to the air suspension system, which uses a double-wishbone front axle and a five-link rear axle. It also has electronically actuated active anti-roll bars, electronically controlled dampers and an arsenal of sensors that scan the road ahead and feed information back to the chassis to compensate for the condition of the surface and iron out the lumps. It works a treat.

The overall ambience is calm and refined, and it’s very easy to chat to your passengers without raising your voice above a murmur. Unless you’re using the excellent audio equipment, that is.

Being such a big car, the Cullinan has plenty of space for physical switches, buttons, levers and dials. But that’s as well as a fully modern suite of digital instrumentation and infotainment. And many functions can be operated by voice. The Cullinan makes life very simple.

What models and trims are available?

There are two versions. You can have a regular Cullinan or a Cullinan Black Badge, which Rolls-Royce updated to Series II status at the same time. The differences between the two cars are largely cosmetic.

So, the wheels of the Black Badge model are the same size but a different design. It also has black on its body – including now the door handles – and even the Spirit of Ecstasy mascot on the bonnet. Plus, there’s a splash of carbon fibre on the dashboard.

The Black Badge is also slightly louder, especially when you hit the Low button, and everything feels slightly firmer when you drive hard. There is also, slightly absurdly, even more power and torque than the basic Cullinan gets – up by 28bhp and 37lb ft.

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Those small changes add up to a slightly meaner, more aggressive attitude, which appeals to some people, especially younger millionaires.

Obviously, you can upgrade your Cullinan even further with a seemingly endless list of optional extras. Popular choices include tailgate seating – two small chairs and a table that allow you to sit in your boot and have a picnic while spectating at, for instance, a polo match.

There are also many choices of paint and interior trim. And Rolls-Royce has a department called ‘Bespoke’ that is set up to liaise with customers who have unusual requests for their car’s specification. Pretty much anything is possible.

What else should I know?

Rolls-Royce is always cagey about pricing, on the basis that it wants you to get in touch with a dealer and discuss your individual requirements. All the cars come out of the same Goodwood factory, but no two are the same, and nobody pays just the basic price: £330,000 for the Cullinan, £380,000 for the Cullinan Black Badge.