He added: “We will only work on a certain grade of vehicle.
“If somebody brought in a Mazda, for instance: there’s nothing wrong with Mazda, but if somebody brought in a Mazda and said ‘could you fit a coachbuilt body to it?’, we wouldn’t.”
Allesley’s first project will be a “very large, superluxury SUV” commissioned by its chief financial backer – whose identity Abercrombie wouldn’t be drawn on.
It will be powered by a combustion engine, owing to the current dominance of this powertrain type in the luxury market.
Nonetheless, Allesley is open to working on electric cars as their availability in the high-end sector improves, and Abercrombie noted that the skateboard-style architecture of many EVs enables much more “radical” redesigns.
“The skateboard platform in electric vehicles was one of the reasons why we set about doing this, because it actually makes the process a lot easier,” he said.
“Obviously you have a skateboard and you have a top hat – the body that goes on top of the car.
“So it gives clients the ability to be a lot more radical with their designs.