Rolls-Royce is churning out Cullinans as fast as it can Read more: https://autoweek.com/article/luxury/rolls-royce-churning-out-cullinans-fast-it-can#ixzz5g0zojHoh

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When Rolls-Royce first floated the idea of an SUV model in 2013, industry observers accepted it with a sigh of inevitability while brand purists flinched and promptly spilled Grey Poupon on their tuxedos. The Anglo-Germanic luxury automaker's SUV experiment doesn't seem so heretical today, helped in no small part by the fact that Bentley sneaked into the SUV party first and was joined around the same time by Maserati, Lamborghini and Alfa Romeo. Aston Martin will follow in just a couple of years, and from the looks of it, Ferrari will too. In fact, the Cullinan has proved to be so po[CENSORED]r that Rolls-Royce, which officially shunned the term SUV shortly until the Cullinan's debut, can barely keep up with the demand, Automotive News reports. The marque's state of the art Goodwood, U.K., factory is running at 100 percent capacity while the order bank is full through July 2019 -- Goodwood has even hired 200 employees to keep up, Automotive News says. And that's for an SUV that starts at $325,000 and whose option book can "fit" the price equivalent of several other SUVs -- the one we drove back in October was optioned up to $380,000 and most will be about $450,000 out the door. That's $125,000 in options

Half of Cullinan buyers are new to the brand, Martin Fritsches, CEO of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Americas told Automotive News. "I would like to have a little bit more supply," Fritsches added. "And I don't get it because we are running on 100 percent of production capacity, increasing the production capacity throughout the weeks and months, but still not being able to catch up to demand." Is this a temporary rush for a model that has just launched a few months ago, or a longer-term trend for all luxury brands? Rolls-Royce fully expected the Cullinan to become the brand's best-selling model, a mantle held by the Dawn convertible until the Cullinan's debut. This means the company knew it would have a hit on its hands long before the first example rolled out of the gates at Goodwood, back when the economy was a little less receptive to $450,000 SUVs. Now, in 2019, the question may very well be: Can Rolls-Royce keep up with the demand