Rolls Royce brings electric luxury

There are plenty of words associated with electric cars — environmentally friendly, efficient, responsible — but luxury isn’t one of them. That might be about to change with the news that Rolls-Royce is working on such a car.

The company (now owned by German firm BMW) has completed work on a single demonstration car, which it will display at the Geneva motor show next month and then take it on a world tour. It says it doesn’t have immediate plans to go into production, but instead wants to see what the public response will be, as well as test it with some existing owners.

The demo model is known as both the 102EX and Phantom Experimental Electric. It’s an adapted version of the Phantom, the most prestigious of the company’s range, with less than 5,000 in use. With a 6.75 liter engine, there’s certainly room for plenty of fuel savings in the electric model: the original Phantom achieves just six kilometers per liter of fuel (a little over 14 miles to the US gallon.)

While going all electric does often put the price of a car up, the effects might not be so significant with the Phantom: the gas version starts in the US at $380,000.


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