LONDON - British-based luxury car maker Rolls-Royce, a subsidiary of German auto group BMW, plans to diversify its vehicle production, the Financial Times reported Thursday.
Rolls-Royce will decide "within a year" which other areas of the car market it wants to enter, the newspaper quoted its chairman and chief executive Ian Robertson as saying.
He added the prestigious top-end automaker was "ruling nothing in and nothing out" in terms of a possible new product range.
A long-term expansion of production at the company's car factory in Goodwood, southern England, could be on the cards after Robertson described "significant scope for growth" at the company, it added.
The prestigious car maker previously aimed to produce 1,000 cars per year -- of its latest Phantom model -- but executives believe production could double in the longer term at the plant.
Rolls-Royce could also manufacture less expensive vehicles at the Goodwood factory, with price ranges between 150,000 and 200,000 dollars (116,000 euros and 154,000 euros), according to the report.
It currently produces luxury limousines retailing for more than 350,000 dollars.
Last year luxury brand Bentley -- Rolls-Royce's former sister company now owned by Europe's biggest car maker Volkswagen -- recorded the best growth in the sector thanks to the success of its 165,000 dollar Continental GT model.
05/05/2005 08:37 GMT