With automobile manufacturers the world over shifting focus to electric vehicles, Rolls-Royce is now joining the transition with an all-new electric car for its super-rich clientele. Keeping the launch timeline under wraps, Rolls-Royce Chief Executive Officer Torsten Mueller-Oetvoes told Bloomberg Television in an interview that “it will of course obviously be a brand-new Rolls-Royce, rest assured”.
It was in 2017 when the luxury car manufacturer announced it would skip hybrids and go straight to electric vehicles and in 2020, trademarked the name ‘Silent Shadow’ – a nod to the vintage Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow. Details about the upcoming EV aren’t available yet. Rolls is tight-lipped about its arrival but early rumours suggest it would be sometime later in the decade.
Rolls-Royce is not known for loud engines, to begin with, so electrified powertrains fit well into the brand’s persona as “it’s torquey, it’s super silent,” Mueller-Oetvoes notes in the interview.
There have been reports that Rolls-Royce has been testing its EV tech in an electric Phantom prototype. The Silent Shadow could look a bit like the 2016 103EX Concept which hosted a load of tech including full autonomy as the interior had no controls whatsoever. It is unlikely though that the Silent Shadow will come without a steering wheel.
We have seen an example of an electric Rolls-Royce before. In August 2020, electric classic car creator Lunaz just took the wraps off new electric Rolls-Royce models restored from the ground up before being transformed to their all-electric avatars. One of them was a 1961 Rolls-Royce Phantom V.
Reference: https://www.financialexpress.com/auto/electric-vehicles/first-ever-electric-rolls-royce-silent-shadow-silver-shadow-phantom-ghost-boat-tail-sweptail/2262816/
