The marketplace for luxury crossovers is growing to
such an extent that we’re witnessing divergent trends. On the one hand, we see
more and more luxury automakers coming out with smaller and smaller SUVs. On
the other, we see the most upscale of them hitting the scene with rather large ones.
In the British marque’s case, we don’t expect the
two ever to come together. But if they did, it might look a little something
like this. Envisioned by Nikita Aksyonov is a subcompact crossover that we’ll
call the Cherub.
It appears to be based on the new Volvo XC40, but features an upright Pantheon
grille, “suicide” rear doors, self-leveling wheel hubs… everything you might,
in short, we expect to see on the new Cullinan, but in a much smaller package.
If Goodwood were to make such a vehicle, it’d have
to compete with the likes of the Mercedes GLA, Audi Q3, Infiniti QX30, and the
new Lexus UX – not to mention the aforementioned Volvo and BMW’s own X1. Or
more poignantly, the Range Rover Evoque and the new Jaguar E-Pace. But Rolls
would have to charge a great deal more for theirs, which would mean it’d be
priced closer to much larger models.
Either that, or it’d have to charge much less than
it would for anything else it’s ever made, which wouldn’t sit so well with the
automaker or its elite clientele. So while we could one day see something
smaller than the assuredly gargantuan forthcoming Cullinan, we doubt it’d ever
be this small.
