Founded in the United Kingdom in 1904, Rolls-Royce was nationalized in 1971 and then demerged from Rolls-Royce Motors in 1998 when it was sold to the Volkswagen Group. The company is now officially known as Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Limited. Roll-Royce was founded by Henry Royce, who originally started an electrical and mechanical business in 1884. Royce was first known for his superior crane designs, which helped establish a positive reputation for Rolls-Royce as it moved to producing vehicles.

The Royce 10 would be the first official Rolls-Royce vehicle, which came in two, three, four, and six-cylinder variations. The first version was unveiled at the Paris Salon in December of 1904, with a starting price of £395, or $465 USD (the equivalent of more than $13,000 in current value). Today, Rolls-Royce makes a variety of luxury vehicles, including the Phantom, Phantom EWB, Cullinan, Cullinan Black Badge, Ghost, Ghost EWB, Ghost Black Badge, Wraith, Wraith Black Badge, Dawn, and Dawn Black Badge. Rolls-Royce sold 5,586 vehicles worldwide in 2021, setting a record for company sales.

Rolls-Royce recently announced it intends to convert to fully-electric vehicles by 2030, discontinuing its internal combustion engine line. The company will start this process by debuting its new EV, the Spectre, in the fourth quarter of 2023, though there is little technical information about this car as of yet. Rolls-Royce did say that the car will be equipped with battery cells from Samsung SDI; its owners, the BMW Group, have increased battery cell orders specifically for use in electric cars.