Rolls-Royce starts testing aluminium space-frame architecture

Back in February 2015, Rolls-Royce had announced that it was developing an all-new aluminium space-frame architecture that would underpin all future models arriving in the market from early 2018. Now, the company has announced that it has begun the testing phase of this new architecture. 

Rolls-Royce has also unveiled the engineering mule for the new architecture. Test mules will be driven across different locations and conditions in the world. The current testing phase aims to ensure that the new space-frame structure lives up to Rolls-Royce's ride quality standards on a variety of surfaces. This phase will also see the test mules subjected to extreme weather conditions.

The new architecture is expected to underpin the upcoming Cullinan SUV that is already under development. The same chassis is likely to be used for upper-rung BMW models as well.