Future Cars: The 2023 Rolls-Royce Silent Shadow Is the Upper-Crust EV
The world’s most prestigious automotive brand finally goes electric.
WHAT IT IS:During BMW's recent annual meeting, CEO Oliver Zipse said the company will offer an EV "in 90 percent of segments—from the compact class to the ultra-luxury segment." Rolls-Royce is BMW's ultra-luxury brand, and its first production electric vehicle—and likely the first from any of the few brands in such rarified air—is believed to be called Silent Shadow. An entirely new entry in the brand's portfolio (meaning it won't replace any model, as has been rumored), it's likely a sedan rather than an SUV. Rolls-Royce's unique heritage and market position make it somewhat immune to the SUV craze, which has been handled by the Cullinan, anyway. Styling inspiration will come from the wild 103EX autonomous EV concept car from 2016 (seen here), though we expect carryover elements to be limited to specific details and the bulk of the vehicle to employ more traditional Rolls-Royce design and proportions.
WHY IT MATTERS:Rolls-Royce floated the idea of an EV a decade ago with the 102EX concept, a fully electric seventh-generation Phantom, but found little appetite among its wealthy customers. Rolls people were also quoted as early as last year saying there still isn't customer demand for electric ultra-luxury cars, but governments worldwide are pressing the issue. Although the twin-turbo V-12 engine under the current cars' long hoods may still convey prestige, it's falling out of favor with both air quality regulators and the increasingly environmentally conscious public. When this vehicle does premiere, it'll be the first Rolls in more than two decades to offer anything but a 12-cylinder engine.
PLATFORM AND POWERTRAIN:Lucky for Rolls-Royce, EV technology has advanced considerably since the 102EX offered all of 124 miles of range. Although it will be built on Rolls' exclusive aluminum "Architecture of Luxury," the new vehicle is believed to share a great deal of development and EV technology with the upcoming electric variant of the next BMW 7 Series, which may be called i7. Both use EV tech from the new BMW i4 EV sedan and iX SUV as a foundational building block, including those models' in-house-built electric motors. On the Rolls, reports indicate a battery capacity of more than 100 kWh and a range figure cresting 300 miles.
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ESTIMATED PRICE:$380,000
EXPECTED ON-SALE DATE:Summer 2022
Were you one of those kids who taught themselves to identify cars at night by their headlights and taillights? I was. I was also one of those kids with a huge box of Hot Wheels and impressive collection of home-made Lego hot rods. I asked my parents for a Power Wheels Porsche 911 for Christmas for years, though the best I got was a pedal-powered tractor. I drove the wheels off it. I used to tell my friends I’d own a “slug bug” one day. When I was 15, my dad told me he would get me a car on the condition that I had to maintain it. He came back with a rough-around-the-edges 1967 Volkswagen Beetle he’d picked up for something like $600. I drove the wheels off that thing, too, even though it was only slightly faster than the tractor. When I got tired of chasing electrical gremlins (none of which were related to my bitchin’ self-installed stereo, thank you very much), I thought I’d move on to something more sensible. I bought a 1986 Pontiac Fiero GT and got my first speeding ticket in that car during the test drive. Not my first-ever ticket, mind you. That came behind the wheel of a Geo Metro hatchback I delivered pizza in during high school. I never planned to have this job. I was actually an aerospace engineering major in college, but calculus and I had a bad breakup. Considering how much better my English grades were than my calculus grades, I decided to stick to my strengths and write instead. When I made the switch, people kept asking me what I wanted to do with my life. I told them I’d like to write for a car magazine someday, not expecting it to actually happen. I figured I’d be in newspapers, maybe a magazine if I was lucky. Then this happened, which was slightly awkward because I grew up reading Car & Driver, but convenient since I don’t live in Michigan. Now I just try to make it through the day without adding any more names to the list of people who want to kill me and take my job.
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