The business of Rolls-Royce and Bentley

During World War I, Royce began designing the first Rolls-Royce aircraft engine, known as the Rolls-Royce Eagle.

Walter Owen (W.O.) Bentley was also an engineer who had served an apprenticeship with the Great Northern Railway of England.  In 1912, he went into partnership with his brother, Horace Millner, to sell French cars from Doriot, Flandrin & Parant. However, W.O. was not impressed by the cars’ performance and came up with the idea of making the engine pistons from an aluminium alloy. This proved to be successful.

During World War I, Bentley used this knowledge to improve the performance of the Rolls-Royce Eagle engine.

After the war, Bentley formed a new company to build cars, aimed at performance and being the best in class.  The cars were successful at Le Mans during the 1920’s.

Bentley ran into financial difficulties and, in 1931, was acquired by Rolls-Royce.

Although Henry Royce died on April 22, 1933, the company flourished as both a car and engine maker, expanding into diesel engines for use in automotive, construction machinery, and marine applications.

Rolls-Royce ran into trouble developing the RB211 turbofan jet engine, which led to the company going into administration in 1971.

The company was effectively nationalised under the new name Rolls-Royce (1971) Limited. However, a separate company, Rolls-Royce Motors Limited, was set up in preparation for the sale of the car business, leaving the new parent company to concentrate on aircraft engines.

Rolls-Royce (1971) Limited became Rolls-Royce Holdings Limited in readiness for the company to be floated on the stock market. In 1973, after the flotation, the company became known as Rolls-Royce plc.

When Rolls-Royce Motors Limited was eventually sold to engineering company Vickers in 1980, there was a stipulation that the Rolls-Royce brand name and RR logo remained with Rolls-Royce plc.

In 1998, Vickers decided to sell Rolls-Royce Motors Limited. BMW was widely expected to acquire the company, as they had been supplying engines and other components, particularly for the new Rolls-Royce Silver Seraph and Bentley Arnage models being launched to replace the Silver Spirit-based models. But BMW were dramatically outbid by the Volkswagen Group.

The Volkswagen Group, in buying Rolls-Royce Motors Limited, acquired the Crewe factory, the Spirit of Ecstasy radiator mascot and the famous grille. However, Rolls-Royce plc owned the brand name and RR logo, which BMW promptly arranged to license from Rolls-Royce plc. BMW’s contract with Rolls-Royce Motors Limited allowed them to withdraw engine supply with a twelve-month notice period.  This created an impasse, which forced Volkswagen and BMW to negotiate.

The result was that BMW would continue to supply engines to Volkswagen for Rolls-Royce and Bentley cars until the end of 2002 and allow them to use the Rolls-Royce name and logo. Then, from January 1, 2023, having built a new production facility in Goodwood, West Sussex, England, BMW would build Rolls-Royce cars under the new company name Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Limited, and Volkswagen would produce Bentleys, having had time to develop their own engines, in Crewe, under the new company name Bentley Motors Limited.

The two companies are now distinct brands, no longer producing cars that closely resembled each other and otherwise differing only in performance and suspension setup.