The head of the luxury car maker has confirmed that using batteries will soon be the only way to keep offering clients 12-cylinder engines as environmental regulations continue to increase.
Speaking to Auto Express during the Geneva Motor Show, Rolls-Royce’s CEO, Torsten Müller-Otvos, described hybrid technology as essential in two years, maybe not from customer demand but through legal regulation on emissions, if the car company wants to continue using V12 powerplants.
Rolls-Royce has already toyed with an all-electric version of its Phantom flagship, the 100EX, but it failed to excite any of the brand’s existing clients and so never went any further than the prototype stage.
A Rolls-Royce cannot come with any kind of compromise, and both the recharging times and the range were not acceptable for our buyers but with hybrid technology that is no longer a problem, Müller-Otvos is quoted as saying.
Indeed to see how far hybrids have come since the original Honda Insight and mark I Toyota Prius, simply stop by the Ferrari, Porsche or McLaren stands at this year’s event.
Each car company is showcasing how backing up a petrol engine with an electric motor doesn’t just have to be about saving fuel or cutting CO2 emissions. Hybrid technology can also be used to make a car even faster and more powerful, essentially bringing new levels of performance.
In a separate interview with MotorTrend also conducted at Geneva, Tobias Moers, head of AMG, the performance arm of Mercedes-Benz, confirmed that retaining the V12 engine was about not offering customers a compromized product and that the company will continue to build them: As long as there are customers. Some people like the extra sophistication. Maybe the next-generation V-12 needs a plug-in hybrid? Who knows?
Moers also let it slip during the interview that as well as maintaining V12s, the company has a new V8 engine coming and a new sportscar designed to challenge the Porsche 911, both of which will be making their debuts at the New York International Auto Show in April.
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