Report: Rolls Royce mulls granola with its clotted cream: Plug-in hybrids coming

Rolls Royce is typically thought of as in a class of its own; sure makers such as Maybach have tried in the past to imitate, but Rolls has all ways insisted on doing things their own way. They tried, but none too hard with the 100EX electric years back, but when the company showed this car to 100 prospective customers, the response was “ambivalent” as quipped by Torsten Muller-Otvos, CEO of Rolls Royce. In an interview with AutoExpress, He said that “A Rolls Royce cannot come with any kind of compromise, as both the recharging times were not acceptable for our buyers, but with hybrid technology, that’s no longer a problem.”

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Read what you may into this suggestion. It sounds open ended enough that it could be there just to drum up investor excitement, or the fellow could be insinuating something a bit more serious. Sure, BMW is working on a 4 cylinder based hybrid system for their X5 sport utility vehicle, but it would be more than difficult to imagine a Rolls-Royce with a four cylinder engine as anything other than a range extender. As the Phantom is no shrinking violet, the car would need to be reduced in weight significantly, or the system might make its debut on the Ghost or the Wraith.

-By: Sawyer Sutton

Source: AutoExpress