Rolls Royce is developing its first electric car and is apparently looking to make a statement with it, as the latest report suggests that it will spawn a new model line as well.
A few months earlier, the carmaker’s CEO, Torsten Muller-Otvos, said during an interview that Rolls Royce would skip hybrid and plug-in hybrid technology altogether and focus instead on pure battery-electric vehicles.
Read More: 2023 BMW i7 To Have 536 HP And 300+ Mile Range?
As it turns out, BMW, the owner of Rolls Royce, filed a trademark with the German patent office for the ‘Silent Shadow’ name, which sounds like the perfect fit for the first electric Rolls.
In addition, according to Autocar, there’s currently a battery-powered Phantom prototype at BMW’s R&D hub. The prototype is said to be used as a test bed for the electric powertrain as the final ‘Silent Shadow’ is expected to be a different car.
There’s no information on what form the Silent Shadow will take; the report speculates that Rolls Royce’s bespoke EV could draw inspiration from the dramatic 103EX concept, which was first seen in 2016.
Under the skin, Rolls Royce’s first EV is expected to share a lot of parts with BMW, which has twinned its development with their own i7, a fully-electric version of the next 7-Series. While the two models will ride on different platforms, with the i7 using a variation of the CLAR architecture and Rolls Royce their own dedicated aluminum spaceframe, they will share things like the BMW-produced electric motors and axles, as well as battery packs, which reportedly feature cells made by Samsung SDI.
Rolls Royce is said to be developing both rear- and all-wheel-drive layouts that work together with a battery pack that has a capacity of well over 100 kWh, to offer a driving range of at least 311 miles (500 km).
The British automaker, which is expected to detail its plans for the ‘Silent Shadow’ before the end of this year, is also going to develop a fully electric version of the Cullinan, which could in turn adopt a layout similar to that of the BMW iX.