The Rolls-Royce badge will be adorning a new vehicle in the near future: an SUV.

You’re likely to think of a Rolls-Royce as the sort of stately machine that would be driven to the opera, or perhaps to a meeting of heads of state. But apparently there’s also a sub-set of ultra-premium car buyers who want the option to go off-roading while maintaining their luxury lifestyle.

Rolls confirmed long-rumored plans to add an SUV to its line-up. And lest you think it will be nothing more than a high-line soft-roader, you can expect something far more capable, stressed Rolls-Royce CEO Torsten Muller-Otvos and Chairman Peter Schwarzenbauer in an open letter released today.

They don’t actually use the words, “sport-utility vehicle,” referring instead to a “high-bodied car with an all-aluminum architecture…that can cross any terrain.” If it acts like a duck, goes the old adage.

Rolls will follow Bentley into the luxury ute segment, its rival that is set to launch the Bentayga later this year. At a slightly lower price point, Maserati also is getting ready to bring its first SUV to market.

Charles Freeston traversed much of the European Continent before it was paved in a Rolls-Royce.

Indeed, there should be no surprise that Rolls is racing into the premium ute segment. Once ridiculed for its decision to launch the Cayenne, that model is now Porsche’s best-seller, recently spawning the smaller Macan model. Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Audi have rapidly fleshed out their lines with various crossovers and utes – which are gaining volume faster than their traditional passenger car lines.

To calm the nerves of those elite motorists who still might not get it, Schwarzenbauer and Muller-Otvos noted that while the new ute will mark “another seminal moment,” the yet unnamed vehicle is not entirely unique in “in Rolls-Royce’s 111-year-journey.”

They point to the British brand’s “pioneering, adventurous spirit,” and to one of the U.K.’s true adventurers, British Lieutenant T.E. Lawrence. Better known as Lawrence of Arabia, he used a squadron of armored Rolls-Royces during his campaign against Turkish forces during World War I. In fact, there were six squadrons formed during the “War to End All Wars.”

(Rolls-Royce expects modest growth thanks to bespoke line. For more, Click Here.)

When later asked his impression of the vehicles, Lawrence reportedly responded, “I should like my own Rolls-Royce car with enough tires and petrol to last me all my life.”

Closer to home, during the years before European roads were well paved and easy to travel, automotive pioneer Charles Freeston relied on a beefed-up Rolls to explore the Continent.

(Click Here to see details on slowing luxury sales in China.)

So, Rolls management seems to suggest, there’s plenty of tradition to fall back on – as well as the mandate by company co-founder Sir Henry Royce who long ago declared, “When it does not exist, design it.”

Other details will have to follow – including the name the company will turn to. Some rumors suggest it might be dubbed the Rolls-Royce Cullinan.

(To see more about Mercedes-Maybach Pullman upping the luxury quotient, Click Here.)

The good news for Rolls is that it won’t necessarily have to design the new car entirely from scratch. It will be able to tap into the off-road expertise of its parent, BMW, for such necessities as the underlying all-wheel-drive system that will be used in the new model.