Rolls-Royce launches Dawn in India at Rs6.25 cr

Rolls-Royce Dawn, the super-luxury convertible from the British car-maker, was launched in India on Friday, for Rs6.25 crore (ex-showroom, Mumbai).

The Dawn is a 2+2 seater soft-top convertible. It is the fourth Rolls-Royce model to be introduced in India, after the Phantom, Ghost and the Wraith.

The company's Asia-Pacific regional director, Paul Harris, said that the Dawn is the pinnacle luxury good for India. ''It's rare, bespoke and hand-crafted to the usual Rolls-Royce hallmark standard. This will be a car for only a select few,'' he said.

The Dawn is the first car in the automaker's line-up to be offered only in the drophead version; there is no hard-top version available at present. It gets a retractable soft-top that can be opened or closed at speeds up to 50kph; it takes 20 seconds to convert.

While there are some visual similarities with the Wraith, Rolls-Royce says that 80 per cent of the body work that has gone into the Dawn is all new. It's a large vehicle - 5,285mm long, 1,947mm wide, 1,502mm high, and has a wheelbase of 3,112mm.

It is powered by a 6.6-litre twin turbocharged V12 petrol engine that produces a maximum output of 563bhp and a torque of 820Nm. The car goes from 0-100kph in 5 seconds, before hitting an electronically-limited top speed of 250kph.