Private company

Rolls-Royce Motors

Rolls-Royce Motors was a British luxury car manufacturer, created in 1973 during the de-merger of the Rolls-Royce automotive business from the nationalised Rolls-Royce Limited.1

Last updated Oct 18, 2026.

Overview

1904Founded1
  • Industryautomotive industry1
  • HeadquartersCrewe1

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Rolls-Royce Motors was a British luxury car manufacturer, created in 1973 during the de-merger of the Rolls-Royce automotive business from the nationalised Rolls-Royce Limited. It produced luxury cars under the Rolls-Royce and Bentley brands. Vickers acquired the company in 1980 and sold it to Volkswagen in 1998. Bentley Motors is the company's direct successor, but BMW acquired the rights to the Rolls-Royce trademark for use on automobiles and launched a new company, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, in 2003.2

How it started

History

The original Rolls-Royce Limited had been nationalised in 1971 due to the financial collapse of the company, caused in part by the development of the RB211 jet engine. In 1973, the British government sold the Rolls-Royce car business to allow nationalised parent Rolls-Royce (1971) Limited to concentrate on jet engine manufacture.

In 1980, Rolls-Royce Motors was acquired by Vickers.

A marketing survey in 1987 showed that only Coca-Cola was a more widely known brand than Rolls-Royce.

Sale to Volkswagen

In 1998, Vickers plc decided to sell Rolls-Royce Motors. The leading contender seemed to be BMW, who already supplied internal combustion engines and other components for Rolls-Royce and Bentley cars. Their final offer of £340m was outbid by Volkswagen Group, who offered £430m.

From Wikipedia’s article on Rolls-Royce Motors, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.2

Timeline

  1. 1998Dissolved Dissolved1
  2. 1904Founded Founded1

Sources

The numbers on this page point here. Each one links to the record it came from.

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