Rolls-Royce swaps EV target for more V12s
First Bentley applies the brakes to battery power, now Goodwood says combustion will continue long after 2030
Of all the luxury manufacturers that made a pledge about the transition to EVs, it arguably made the most sense for Rolls-Royce. Its cars were famously refined and effortlessly torquey with hundreds of valves, pistons, conrods, turbochargers and camshafts doing their thing; it wasn’t hard to imagine what could be achieved with a battery and near-silent e-motors. Rolls-Royces have almost always been heavy cars, too, so it was hardly like electric power stood to threaten decades of reputation built on lightweight performance machinery.
Add all that to the fact that R-R could make use of BMW’s EV technology, and all looked pretty promising; back at the launch of the Spectre in 2022, then-CEO Torsten Muller Otvos said that the entire lineup would be electric in just eight years. “By the end of 2030 we will no longer be in the business of producing vehicles with internal combustion engines.” Ambitious, certainly - but the Spectre was critically acclaimed. If anyone was going to do it from the legacy makers, it was surely Rolls-Royce - making around 5,000 cars a year - who could go from only V12s to only EVs.
Well, it ain’t gonna happen. In a Times interview, current boss Chris Brownridge has backtracked on the promise made by his predecessor, and suggested that V12s will continue in Rolls-Royces past 2030. Though he conceded that what Muller-Otvos had said was “right at the time”, recent developments like the relaxation of emissions targets had changed the playing field. That and the fact people buying Rolls-Royces still really want those engines they can’t detect working: “The legislation has changed. That prediction was based on a different set of circumstances. We recognise some clients would rather have a V12 engine. The V12 is part of our history.”
Indeed, Brownridge reckoned that “for every client that loves an electric vehicle there is one who does not”, so being generous, that puts the Spectre at around half of the 5,664 cars sold by Rolls-Royce last year. Exact data on the sales split between Spectre, Phantom, Cullinan and Ghost isn’t officially available, though as so many makers are finding right now the demand for combustion engines far outweighs the appetite for batteries. From a business perspective, for an OEM in firsthand contact with many of its customers, it would be senseless not to cater to their whims.
The decision from Rolls-Royce comes as Bentley is putting the finishing touche to its electric car, first hinted at with the EXP 15 and having similarly promised an entirely EV line up by 2030. Back in 2020, it reckoned that every model in the lineup would be PHEV or EV by 2026; while every Bentley product does now have an electrified offering, cars like the Supersports - 666hp V8, rear-drive, limited run - are most certainly still around. And still coveted, too.
In November, Bentley suggested that its Luxury Urban SUV would be on sale this year and with its customers in 2027. That remains the case, despite the fact that the brand “has a lot of work to do” - according to CEO Frank-Steffen Walliser - on convincing customers to give up their V8s. In an interview with the Financial Times, with 275 redundancies imminent, he added: “We had to renew, rethink and recalculate our complete product line and all future offers,” thanks to “renewed interest in the internal combustion engine”.
Accordingly, he sees a future with EVs, PHEVs and “very selective” petrol models - think Supersports again - in Bentley’s future. It follows a drop in profits last year of 42 per cent, to €216m, thanks to the costs associated with cancelling development of a new EV platform to be shared by Porsche and Audi with Bentley.
With all that’s unfolding at Aston Martin of late as well, plainly there are tricky times ahead for the British-based luxury makers. Understandable environmental pressure, and the legislation associated with it, forced them onto a path buyers were reluctant to follow them down; while the rules have slackened off a little, it’s far easier for lawmakers to change direction than it is for car manufacturers. Especially as demand for engines appears only to have intensified in the years of deliberation. Expect fewer cast-iron promises and a little more pragmatism as 2030 approaches. As well as plenty of purely combustion-powered special editions…
TX.
TX.
However, seems sensible to let cars that are best served by fossils slip through. That should of course be hard core petrol-head cars not barges for the wealthy.
TX.
Can’t see the UAE, USA or Asia where these are popular banning ICE anytime soon.
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