Report: Rolls-Royce isn’t ready to adopt EV tech just yet, but it’s not completely ruled out
Rolls-Royce has long maintained that its customers simply aren’t interested in the plebeian quest for conservation with their cars, in terms of fuel economy and efficiency and thus, they’ve kept any desire for production EVs or hybrids at bay, despite some concepts and prototypes here and there.
But at a recent interview at the 2015 Frankfurt Motor Show with Rolls’ CEO, Torsten Müller-Ötvös and AutomotiveNews, word is Rolls isn’t ruling out EVs or hybrids, but no final decision to produce models currently even exists.
“I can definitely imagine a fully electric Rolls-Royce,” Mr. Müller-Ötvös said to AN.
Rolls-Royce expressed slight interest in EVs back in 2011 at the Geneva Motor Show, where they revealed the 102EX Concept, an EV based on the Phantom, but with only two 194hp electric motors mated to a 71-kWh battery. That’s really not much to move almost three tons of German and British excellence when compared to its normal V12, but somehow, it achieved 60 in just eight seconds while offering a range of only 124 miles.
If anything was materialize from Rolls’ talks about EVs and hybrids, there’s a chance we could see a plug-in hybrid version in 2017, according to several rumors dating back to 2014 with tech most likely lifted BMW.
– By: Chris Chin
Source: AutomotiveNews