Rolls-Royce Motor Cars is a true luxury house, creating the world’s most recognized, revered and desirable handcrafted Bespoke products for its international clientele. The company employs more than 2,500 people at the Home of Rolls-Royce at Goodwood, West Sussex. This comprises both its global headquarters and Centre of Luxury Manufacturing Excellence – the only place in the world where Rolls-Royce motor cars are designed, engineered and meticulously built by hand. Its continuous investment in its facilities, products and people has resulted in a series of ‘record years’ for global sales, peaking in 2022 with over 6,000 motor cars sold worldwide. Rolls-Royce Motor Cars is a wholly owned subsidiary of the BMW Group and is a completely separate, unrelated company from Rolls-Royce plc, the manufacturer of aircraft engines and propulsion systems.

The Spirit of Ecstasy

The Spirit of Ecstasy is an instantly recognisable, modern icon of British luxury. Having graced the prow of Rolls-Royce motor cars since 1911, today, she remains one of the world’s most famous symbols, embodying beauty, luxury, style and perfection. A wholly new visual treatment of the Spirit of Ecstasy has been created, called The Spirit of Ecstasy Expression. With an aethereal yet tech-like feeling, The Expression adds a cutting-edge aura to the new visual identity. Contemporary in appearance, The Expression speaks of the marque’s modern lifestyle presence.

Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Limited

Since 1904 Rolls-Royce has created instantly recognisable luxury motor cars that have made the marque an enduring icon all over the world. Inspired by some of the most evocative cars ever built, products are hand built at Goodwood in England. In 1998, Volkswagen AG bought Rolls-Royce & Bentley Motor Cars, while Rolls-Royce plc sold its car marque to the BMW Group. it was agreed that Volkswagen would continue to build cars wearing the Spirit of Ecstasy at Crewe until the end of 2002.

Situated near Goodwood on the south coast of England, the new headquarters has a noble heritage: the land forms part of the estate of the Earl of March. Close by, the horse racing track, private air strip, race track, golf course and the historic Goodwood House, provide opportunities to enjoy the locality for both our employees and our customers. The site chosen for the brand new, purpose-designed manufacturing plant and headquarters met all criteria laid down at the birth of the project.

Created by award winning architects Nicholas Grimshaw and Partners, the Rolls-Royce facilities are set in an area of outstanding natural beauty and include the largest single span ‘green’ roof in Europe. Covered with many thousand cedum plants that change colour with the seasons, the site blends perfectly into its surroundings. Water draining off the roof is channelled into a landscaped lake which, in turn, drives a pump that powers air conditioning units for the buildings.

Inside, the working environment is inspirational. Light and spacious, it is perfect for a manufacturing process that blends the latest technology with the traditional craft skills found in the wood and leather shops. The intention was to create a finely crafted, contemporary building that works in harmony with its natural setting. In this way the new manufacturing plant and head office reflect the ethos behind the Rolls-Royce name, where technology and tradition are brought together with exceptional results. Nicholas Grimshaw, Architec

Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Limited
The Drive, Westhampnett
Chichester, West Sussex PO18 0SH,
United Kingdom

 

The other Rolls-Royce

Rolls-Royce plc is the second-largest aircraft engine maker in the world, behind General Electric’s GE Aircraft Engines division. Rolls-Royce’s aerospace business makes commercial and military gas turbine engines for military, airline, and corporate aircraft customers worldwide. In the US, the company makes engines for regional and corporate jets, helicopters, and turboprop aircraft. Rolls-Royce also constructs and installs power generation systems and is one of world’s largest makers of marine propulsion systems. Rolls-Royce plc has not manufactured cars since 1971. Current production is undertaken by Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Ltd., part of the BMW Group.

 

Heritage

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Rolls and Royce Founding Agreement

Rolls-Royce Motor Cars was formed in 1904, following the historic meeting of the aristocrat Charles Stewart Rolls and Henry Royce in Manchester, England. These extraordinary individuals hailed from different backgrounds, but shared many traits. Most significantly, both were visionaries and passionate engineers. Henry Royce had established his reputation as a successful electrical engineer and businessman, prior to turning his skills to car making at the turn of the century. Charles Rolls, a pioneer in the exciting new fields of automotive and aviation, shared Royce’s hands-on approach to nuts, bolts and moving parts.

By the time the men met, Royce had begun a car manufacturing operation in Manchester. Rolls, meanwhile, was retailing cars from a showroom in central London. Both were on record professing dissatisfaction with the quality of imported models upon which their respective operations were originally based. The meeting in Manchester – of men and of minds – established exclusive rights for Rolls to sell the British-built, and magnificently engineered Royce motor cars through his London showroom. Rolls-Royce was born.

Rolls and Royce Agreement – May 04 1904

The meeting led to an agreement that Rolls would exclusively sell as many cars as Royce could produce. The marque launched in 1904 following a verbal agreement made back in May although a formal agreement was not signed between the two until December. C.S. Rolls & Co were the sole agents for a series of two, three, four and six cylinder cars that broke the mould for engineering and craftsmanship. By 1907 Royce had created the first Silver Ghost, a car of legendary smoothness that completed a 14,371-mile virtually non-stop run that led a journalist to call it ‘the best car in the world’

Rolls And Royce

On March 15 1906, Rolls-Royce Ltd. was officially registered with Charles S. Rolls and F. Henry Royce as directors. In 1904, Henry Royce, the founder of his self-titled electrical and mechanical engineering firm, built his first car. In May of that year, he met Charles Rolls, whose company sold cars in London. The two men agreed that Royce Limited would manufacture a line of cars to be sold exclusively by C.S. Rolls & Co.

The cars bore the name Rolls-Royce. Success with their partnership led to the formation of the Rolls-Royce Company. In 1906, just after the company was organized, it released the six-cylinder 40/50 horsepower Silver Ghost. The car was enthusiastically heralded by the British press as “the best car in the world.”