Imagine cruising down the road in your Rolls-Royce, ensconced in enough hand-crafted finery to keep a small village busy for a month, with nothing but the susurration of the wind passing by. That could be a reality soon, as the idea of Rolls-Royce’s electric Phantom recently became a little more concrete.
According to a report from the U.K.’s Daily Mail, new CEO Torsten Mueller-Oetvoes confirmed this past week that all options for alternative-fuel Rolls-Royce vehicles are being considered, and that an electric Phantom would be a “good idea.”
With 2.5-tonnes of road-going luxury to power, a job normally left to a massive 338 kW 6.75-litre V12 engine, an electric powertrain in a Phantom would have to be one of the burliest ever fitted to a production passenger vehicle. But at the same time, the end product of an electric drive system mates perfectly with the NVH (noise, vibration and harshness) reduction goals, lack of maintenance, high torque requirements, and simple functionality sought in the hyperluxury segment.
Don’t expect to see a production version – or even a concept – before 2012, but with Rolls-Royce’s small operations and big corporate backing from parent company BMW, it could become a reality quickly once the decision is made to go-ahead.
