Rolls Royce 102EX Information and Review

Rolls Royce 102EX Information

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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.

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.  

Rolls Royce 102EX Front View

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.

Rolls Royce 102EX Back View

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.

Rolls Royce 102EX Interior

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.

Rolls Royce 102EX Interior

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.

Rolls Royce 102EX Price is around $1.6 million.  

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