Rolls Royce Says No To Hybrids, But Will Go Straight To Production Of Electric Cars

Rolls-Royce CEO reveals Rolls-Royce’s plan to develop electric cars directly rather than ‘compromise’ with hybrids

By Stephen

Updated: Tuesday, August 8, 2017, 11:48 [IST]

Rolls Royce might be the king of the hill in the ultra-luxury car segment, but when it comes to green cars, we are not very sure that the huge V12 engines powering the British Marque's cars have impressed Greenpeace very much.

So would Rolls-Royce make green cars anytime soon? Turns out, they will, but they would be skipping the hybrid cars and go straight into pure electric propelled cars. This was revealed recently by Rolls-Royce CEO, Torsten Muller-Otvos to Autocar UK.

Rolls Royce To Develop Electric Cars Directly

Speaking at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, he said, "Electrification is the way forward and there will be no in between steps for us like hybridisation." He further said that Rolls-Royce's customers would not accept the compromise of hybrid technology.

Last year, as part of parent company BMW Group's 100th anniversary, Rolls-Royce revealed the Vision 100 concept, an all-electric car with autonomous technology. Torsten further said, referring to electric cars, "It is the propulsion system of the future, make no error. There is a time, nobody can predict when - when there will be no combustion engines. That will take a long, long time, but it will happen."

Also commenting on autonomous systems, he said that Rolls-Royce would develop autonomous cars, but there is no immediate requirement for them to focus on autonomous cars right now.

DriveSpark Thinks!

It is certain that, electric propulsion systems are the way forward. While Rolls-Royce has chosen to skip hybrids and go straight to electric, Volvo just announced that they would hybridise and electrify their entire product line-up. However, the ultimate step would be to get into manufacturing of electric cars.