2022 Rolls-Royce Black Badge Ghost available in Australia
Luxury sedan with dynamic boost and bespoke styling rolls into Australia.
Rolls-Royce Australia has revealed that the Black Badge Ghost is priced from $745,000 before on-road costs.
The new Rolls-Royce Black Badge Ghost is a more powerful and more individual version of the luxury car and, like other Black Badge models, is aimed at bringing younger buyers into the Rolls-Royce brand.
You can read the review of the Rolls-Royce Black Badge Ghost here.
The Black Badge Ghost uses a 22kW more powerful version of the standard Ghost’s twin-turbocharged 6.75-litre V12 engine, boosted to 441kW. Torque is increased by 50Nm to a maximum of 900Nm, all of which is available from just 1700rpm.
The all-wheel-drive Ghost Black Badge adds a new ‘Low’ driving mode, which sharpens up numerous driving functions, including gearshifts from the eight-speed automatic transmission that are made 50 per cent quicker and a tweaked exhaust note.
Other dynamic tweaks over the donor car include more voluminous air springs that are designed to reduce body roll under hard cornering, a bespoke throttle map, revised tuning for the all-wheel drive and four-wheel steering systems, and the raising of the brake pedal’s biting point while reducing its travel, although the standard braking system has been retained from the Ghost despite the increase in power.
Styling-wise, the exterior of the Ghost Black Badge borrows many flourishes from its Black Badge siblings, the Dawn, Wraith and Cullinan. These include darker chrome shade for the exterior brightwork, grille and the Spirit of Ecstasy, and the 21-inch alloy wheel design.
Inside, there are black wood veneers and technical fabrics and a more ‘subdued’ tone for the interior brightwork, alongside a bespoke, minimalist interior clock that’s flanked by a new design for the Ghost’s LED illuminated fascia.
The Black Badge series has been crucial in reducing the average age of Rolls-Royce buyers, which has dropped from 56 to 43 for the brand to have the youngest average age of buyer in the BMW Group. CEO Torsten Müller-Ötvös said Black Badge is now “such an integral part of the brand” for Rolls-Royce.
Such is their popularity that Black Badge models account for up 40 per cent of all Rolls-Royces sold, far greater than the 15 per cent that Rolls originally envisaged when it was first introduced on the Wraith in 2016.