There's nothing more satisfying than some high profile, company to company, beef.
Enter Torsten Müller-Ötvös, CEO of Rolls-Royce, who was recently interviewed by Automotive News about the premium manufacturer's upcoming SUV — set to be released sometime next year.
In that interview, Müller-Ötvös makes it clear that the Roller is going to be a cut above the opposition, namely because it will avoid using ... ahem ... "mass-manufactured body shells".
“We are not using mass-manufactured body shells. That limits what you can do on the design side and it undermines exclusivity massively," he said. "You don't want a camouflaged [Audi] Q7 in that segment. You want to have a true Rolls-Royce."
Burn.
The jab, in case you missed it, is that the Bentley Bentayga (a surefire rival for Rolls-Royce's SUV) is based on the same architecture as a humble, mainstream, Audi Q7 — as are many other European SUVs including the Porsche Cayenne.
What makes the cross-company beef even funnier is that several Rolls-Royces, including the Ghost and the Dawn, are based on the same architecture as the BMW 7-Series. Rolls-Royce themselves aren't above using architecture from other manufacturers.
This takes a fair bit of shine and zing off Müller-Ötvös's comments, though the proof of success will be in the numbers when the first Rolls-Royce SUVs hit showrooms worldwide in 2018.
For what it's worth, the Rolls-Royce CEO didn't divulge any new information about the SUV project, although speculation suggests that it's likely to be powered by a version of Rolls-Royce and Bentley's 6.75-litre L-Series twin-turbo V12 engine. Bit ironic.