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Autocar confidential: styling plans for Rolls-Royce EV, electric Ford Focus on the way and more

Our reporters have been making reams of notes this week: here's what they found out

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by Autocar

2 mins read

2 November 2021

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In this week's roundup of automotive gossip, Citroen tell us about the future of the MPV and Ford reveal what they've got on the way. But first, Rolls-Royce reveal that their EV plans won't affect one of their most distinctive styling features.

EV plans won't get rid of the Rolls-Royce grille

Think of Rolls-Royce and you think of that grille, no doubt. Which prompts the question: will the luxury marque’s debut EV need such a big mouth? CEO Torsten Müller-Ã–tvös implied it’s not a tradition that will die easily. “Watch this space,” he said, chuckling. “I don’t want to give anything away, but one thing I can tell you is that it will be a proper, proper Rolls-Royce. It deserves the nameplate, it will be peerless and our clients will love it. First of all, we are building a Rolls-Royce, and secondly it’s electric – not the other way around.”

Electric Focus on the way

Stand by for an electric Ford Focus. We don’t know what it will look like yet, but design boss Murat Gueler hinted it’s among the EVs currently being sketched out ahead of a launch in the coming years. “Everybody’slaunching electric cars and we will launch a few in the future,” he said. “Definitely, we’re looking at everything: proportions, architectures… we’re really busy designing all the next-generation cars. There’s a lot ofwork going on.”

Citroen singals the end of the line for the MPV

Want a Citroen C4 Spacetourer? Get your order in quick: it’s not hanging around for long. As CEO Vincent Cobée said, the traditional MPV is a dying breed: “We’ve been the last of the Mohicans for a number of years. We’re stil selling the C4 Spacetourer, with that level of interior roominess. We’re probably the last ones. We need to acknowledge that we’re overly dominating that segment and the segment is fast, fast, fast disappearing.” No surprise that customers are buying SUVs instead.