The growth of electromobility has already accelerated to domino effect speed and continues to pick up speed undeterred. Even very conservative brands are already throwing piston engines overboard. Now Rolls-Royce follows, where the basic advantages of the quiet electric drive fit well into the brand concept: Rolls-Royce CEO Torsten Müller-Ötvös said in the car magazine car, that every Rolls-Royce model should be replaced by an electric car by 2030. This makes the Mk2 Ghost the last Rolls-Royce to be launched with a petrol engine.
At the end of 2023, the first electric car from Rolls-Royce, the coupe called Spectre, is to come onto the market, followed by electrically powered successors to the Phantom, Cullinan and Ghost models. Rolls-Royce sold more cars in 2021 than at any time in its 117-year history, none of them electric. Müller-Ötvös said: “More and more people are actively asking for an electrified Rolls-Royce, including our relatively young customers around the world.” The age of the average Rolls-Royce buyer has fallen sharply in recent years to 43 and many already own an electric car.
He calls the British government’s planned ban on ending the sale of new cars with internal combustion engines by 2030 an “additional incentive.” Apparently, the change in customers has meant that Rolls-Royce wants to focus more on the pleasure of driving electrically. So they not only want to use the comfort advantage of the quiet electric drive train, but also design it “very high torque”, in addition to the traditional idea of a “flying carpet”.
Autonomy has time: only 20 percent let go
Rolls-Royce knows that today only 20 percent of Rolls-Royce customers drive, in contrast to the 80 percent who were chauffeured “when I started here in 2010,” as Müller-Ötvös said. That was in 2010, so not long ago. “Younger drivers in particular are very interested in sitting behind the wheel and driving the cars themselves,” said the Rolls-Royce boss. This development also makes it unnecessary to exert great pressure on the introduction of autonomous driving, as the parent company BMW is vigorously pushing: “We will introduce autonomous driving as soon as it makes absolute sense for our customers. We have not yet reached this state.”
He cannot reasonably name the technical details of future Rolls-Royce electric vehicles, but an electric phantom will “not necessarily” cost more than the current one with a V12 – it costs almost half a million euros.
(fpi)