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First Look: Rolls-Royce 102EX Concept

While an engineer at rival Bentley scoffed and called it "window dressing", Rolls-Royce insiders insist the 102EX concept unveiled at the Geneva Show is the real deal -- a genuine prototype designed to test customer reaction to the idea of an electric-powered Phantom.

The EX moniker - and the red RR badging - has been used by Rolls-Royce to distinguish what the company calls "experimental" models since 1919. And while Henry Royce started his career as an electrical engineer and Charles Rolls spoke favorably of electric vehicles before his death in1910, there's never been a Rolls-Royce as experimental as this Phantom electric vehicle.

Rolls-Royce owners can easily afford to pay high gas guzzler taxes, aren't concerned about soaring fuel prices, and don't care whether London continues to exempt electric vehicles from its daily congestion charge. And in truth, with annual sales of less than 1000 vehicles the Phantom's contribution to global oil consumption and greenhouse gas emissions is an almost immeasurable fraction of that made by the 72 million cars and light trucks sold around the world last year.

But as the big, opulent Phantom is seen by some as a symbol of excess rather success, the 102EX is really more about symbolism than saving the planet.
Ironically, an electric-powered Phantom makes a lot of sense, on several levels. First, the characteristics of an electric powertrain -- abundant low-end torque, plus unparalleled smoothness and silence -- have been the hallmarks of Rolls-Royce engines since the 1907 Silver Ghost. Second, most current Phantom owners don't actually drive their cars that far, averaging somewhere between 1000 and 2000 miles a year, according to Rolls-Royce communications director Richard Carter.

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Carter says Rolls-Royce owners around the world will be given the opportunity to drive the 102EX -- also called the Phantom EE -- and tell the company what they think. "We want to hear what they like, and more importantly what they don't like, about the car," he says. "We want honest feedback." Among the key issues Rolls-Royce wants to hear from its customers about are the usual electric vehicle bugbears -- range, charging time, and performance.

The Phantom EE's powertrain consists of two electric motors mounted on the rear sub-frame driving the rear wheels through a single speed transmission with integrated differential. Each motor is rated at 194hp, giving the Phantom EE a maximum power output of 388hp and 590lb-ft of torque available the moment you squeeze the accelerator pedal. This compares with the regular Phantom's 453hp and 531lb-ft at 3500rpm.

The motors are fed by a 71kW/hr lithium ion battery pack that is believed to be the largest passenger car battery in the world. The pack is comprised of NCM (Lithium-Nickel-Cobalt-Manganese-Oxide) pouch cells, a variant of lithium-ion chemistry that Rolls-Royce says has particularly high energy and power densities. The Phantom EE battery pack houses five modules of cells, a 38-cell module, a 36-cell module, and three smaller ones of ten, eight and four arranged in various orientations within an irregular shaped area that resembles the overall shape of the original 6.75-liter V12 engine and six-speed automatic transmission. Rolls-Royce says the Phantom EE should have a range of about 120 miles.

Recharging will take a lengthy 20 hours, though using three-phase power cuts it to eight hours. An induction charger is also fitted to enable wireless charging, a new technology designed to allow electric vehicles to be recharged without a physical connection to a power source. Under this system a transfer pad on the ground delivers power from a mains source through an induction pad mounted beneath the battery pack. Power frequencies are magnetically coupled across these power transfer pads.

Though no time is given for a wireless recharge, Rolls-Royce claims the process is about 90 percent efficient compared with a regular plug-in charge, and that it is not essential to align the transmitter and receiver pads exactly for charging to take place. The battery pack would be expected to last over three years were it to be used every day, says the company, and part of the Phantom EE evaluation program will be to test this assumption in a real world environment.

All the electric powertrain hardware adds just over 200lb compared with the regular Phantom, bringing the overall mass to 5996lbs. Rolls-Royce claims the Phantom EE will accelerate to 60mph in under 8.0sec, which is about 2.3sec slower than the gas-engined car. Top speed will be limited to 100mph.

The Phantom EE boasts several more "experimental" features besides its powertrain. The Atlantic Chrome paint uses highly reflective ceramic nano particles 1000 times smaller than normal metallic paint particles. Inside, the interior is trimmed with Corinova leather, created through a natural vegetable tanning process. Instead of acres of wood, there's woven aluminum, and the instrument panel is painted the same color as the exterior. The fuel gauge has been replaced with a battery charge indicator, and Roll-Royce's unique "power reserve" gauge has been graduated beyond the 100 percent mark to show the power recouped during braking.

And finally, the traditional metal Spirit of Ecstasy atop the grille -- a feature of Rolls-Royce cars for 100 years -- has been replaced with a translucent version that emits a blue glow. Sadly, this latest version of Charles Sykes' elegant sculpture, first registered by the company on February 6, 1911, is not made of glass, like the rare crystal mascots made by Lalique in the 1920s and 1930s, but of Makrolon, a plastic developed by Bayer for headlights. Such is progress...

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