Wednesday, May 29, 2013
Dubai: Brace yourself for the wrath of the Wraith. Rolls-Royce’s most powerful car — by packing in 12 cylinders and 624-hp it can’t be anything else — yet, the first pre-booked shipments of the Wraith will be in the UAE before the year end. Though the precise sticker price has not been set, informed opinion is that it would be well over the $350,000 range.
Then there will be all the additions as part of the bespoke programme, which over the recent past is a matter of course for any Rolls model sold in the UAE and other regional markets. In comparison, the extent of the model personalisation would be half outside of the region. It is as a nod to this that the Wraith will have a substantial bespoke support from the outset.
“Rolls-Royce is offering bespoke items on the Wraith from Day One and the lion’s share of this will be for the markets here,” said Geoffrey Briscoe, regional director of Rolls Royce Middle East, Africa and Latin America.
The two-door Wraith — unveiled for the first time at the Geneva Motor Show earlier this year — will make it to the production line in the next “couple of months”. “We now have the model that could widen the appeal of the brand and bring in a new range of buyers,” said Briscoe at the media launch in Dubai on Wednesday. “It’s a completely different car from what we have brought out in the past.”
In terms of positioning, the Wraith will take the sweet spot between the Ghost and the Phantom. The belief is that the new nameplate would appeal to a younger generation of buyers, hence the suitable emphasis on power and performance.
Briscoe declined to get into specifics on how many Wraiths will get off the production plant, but did say “we have reasonable flexibility on what can be done with the model line-up.”
For the full year, the official is manoeuvring for another record tally from these markets based on the double-digit growth it has had in the first six months. “It will only get stronger in the second-half with the arrival of the Wraith and the continued demand for Ghost and Phantom,” Briscoe added.
Plus, there will be gains coming from the recent reopening of brand’s presence in Lebanon, a market from which it was absent for 25 years. As to whether it makes sense to go in again at this particular time, Briscoe said: “There will always be someone saying it is not a good time — but when is it one? But when you look at the resilience of the Lebanese, we had to take the decision (on re-entry). There will be fluctuations, but that is part of the process one associates with that market.”
By Manoj Nair Associate Editor
Gulf News 2013. All rights reserved.
