How Rolls-Royce approaches product innovation

Technology is behind much of the world’s product innovations today. Multiple sectors, including parts of the luxury, automotive and fashion industries, are gripped by a kind of technological determinism. 

Tech fever has become the modus operandi for many businesses across the globe, and not just for start-ups and those residing in Silicon Valley.

But at the Home of Rolls-Royce in Goodwood, technology has never been the main driver of our product innovation, even if the latest cutting-edge technology enables it.

We have never been slaves to new technology or trends, nor do we believe that convenience derived from technology should be a prime objective of our cars, or indeed, a requirement of luxury.

Yes, our cars feature the latest cutting-edge technology, but you wouldn’t necessarily know it from sitting in a Phantom because we have always hidden it away, out of sight, beneath the hood, so to speak.

That is because True Luxury is not just about utility. True Luxury is about so much more. 

Take the best that exists, and make it better

Charles Rolls and Henry Royce knew this. Even though the brand was built on the best technology and engines of the time, the original impetus behind Rolls-Royce was not the latest technology, but to ‘take the best that exists, and make it better’. 

That is how the company built “the best car in the world”, the Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost in 1907. 

The Silver Ghost had world class reliability, but it was also incredibly quiet and smooth for its occupants – so smooth in fact that Royce, famously, was able to balance a coin on edge and run the engine without toppling it over. 

Right from our earliest days, a Rolls-Royce motor car had a higher purpose beyond merely replacing the horse and carriage.

Rolls and Royce believed, as we do today, that a motor car should just work silently and effortlessly for the pleasure of its occupants.

A Rolls-Royce has always been a detoxifying experience, its technology neatly tucked away, its interior unblemished with buttons, levers and endless decisions.

That’s why a Rolls-Royce car has never sought to mimic the cockpit of say, a Spitfire, even though Rolls-Royce built the Spitfire’s world beating Merlin engines.

The technology within a Rolls-Royce just works invisibly, effortlessly. And just as it should.

Product innovation at Rolls-Royce Motor Cars is a complex process, and new technology, while paramount to it, only plays a supporting role.  

What drives our product innovation, actually, is a desire to create wonder and delight for our customers.

Wonder and delight are not easy to manufacture. And though they may appear on the surface to be frivolous, they are in fact, extremely difficult to create because, paradoxically, our customers expect it from Rolls-Royce. 

As a Luxury House, the business challenge that we face every day, with every one of our products and customer commissions, is how do we create wonder and delight for our customers when they not only anticipate it, but have extremely high expectations for it? 

Solving this dichotomy is right at the heart of our product innovation. 

Creating delight and wonder is a great challenge, as any magician will tell you.

In many ways, anticipation is the enemy of delight (just as it is, with a good magic trick), and so like a game of cat and mouse, I believe it is our duty to remain fully two steps ahead of our customer’s desires.

We think this is a noble pursuit because when you are able to surprise your audience with something totally unexpected - a trick that helps them to suspend disbelief for a moment – that is pure magic and something worth living and paying for. 

When our customers step into a Rolls-Royce, into The Embrace interior that our designers have carefully calibrated using the latest technology and the oldest hand-craftsmanship techniques, it is our aim that they forget they are in a motor car, suspend disbelief, and marvel at the cocoon of inner sanctuary that only a Rolls-Royce offers.

Wraith Luminary: Luxurious Technology

A fine example of such an approach to product innovation is the remarkable new Wraith Luminary. 

With only fifty-five of these special Collection Cars created, what makes the Wraith Luminary extraordinary, beyond the incredibly high standards that Rolls-Royce sets itself, are two standout product innovations.

Illuminated Wood Panelling

The first is illuminated wooden panelling – a first for any car. Constructed from exceedingly thin Tudor Oak wood sourced from forests in the Czech Republic, the wood was selected for both its depth of colour and grain structure density which enables it to maintain phenomenal strength at extremely thin diameters. 

So thin, in fact, that light can permeate through the wood. This allowed the Rolls-Royce Bespoke Collective to create a spellbinding illuminated pattern of light from hundreds of tiny LED bulbs behind it. 

As a result, the car’s occupants are surrounded in a glowing, magical aura. The effect is magnificent and enchanting.

Shooting For The Stars

The interior roof of Wraith Luminary features a second astonishing feature: shooting stars!

Created by hand weaving a configuration of 1340 fibre optic lights into a glittering night sky, Rolls-Royce’s famous Starlight Headliner now features eight shooting stars that fire at random.

Think about that for a minute: one of the greatest shows on Earth – shooting stars - are now within the roof of a Rolls-Royce. That’s insanity. And rightly so, we’re extremely proud of it.

Both of these new product features are highly innovative and were indeed enabled by the development of cutting-edge technology that our artisans and engineers created. 

But the herculean research, design, manufacturing and handcraftsmanship effort that went into the creation of them, were absolutely, resolutely, driven by Rolls-Royce’s interminable desire to create wonder and delight.

And boy, do they.