Rolls Royce may begin the EV era with the ‘Silent Shadow’

KUALA LUMPUR: It’s no secret that Rolls Royce is developing its first electric car. Back in September, Goodwood-based automaker patented the ‘Silent Shadow’ moniker, which now has been supposed to kickstart the brand’s electric vehicle era, according to a recent report by Autocar.

The publication reported that instead of rolling out a fully electric version of any of the existing models, the company has planned to introduce a completely new car that will be called the Silent Shadow. It is assumed that for this moniker, reference has been taken from the Silver Shadow, Rolls Royce’s best selling model ever, which was under production between 1965 and 1980.

The company’s CEO, Torsten Muller-Otvos told the publication that the BMW-owned brand would skip hybrid and plug-in hybrid technologies and will directly jump into making pure electric vehicles.

“We need to make smart decisions on where we invest our money. It may be okay for bigger companies to go into hybrids and all sorts of different technologies. We needed to make a certain decision,” says the CEO.

According to the publication, the brand presently has an all-electric Phantom prototype at BMW’s research and development hub, which may become the testing base for the upcoming EV although the final product is expected to be a different one. Rolls Royce has not yet spoken about the form which the Silent Shadow will take, but if we go by the reports, the bespoke electric car could take inspiration from the extravagant 103EX concept (pictured here) revealed in 2016. With a total length of 5900 mm, a car that matched the concept’s size is said to be one of the largest Rolls Royce models.

In terms of powertrain, Rolls Royce's first electric car is likely to borrow setup from the BMW iX SUV and the upcoming i7 electric vehicle.

Regarding the official revealing of the Silent Shadow, it is expected that the automaker would detail its plans before the end of this year.

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