Blame the pint of milk. Without it, and the 'milk float' designed to deliver it, the electric car would not have such a lousy reputation in Britain. (Although those plastic-body electric G-Wizs silently plying our streets don't exactly elevate their status.) Intriguingly, despite all the government-inspired publicity, electric car sales were much lower last year than they were in 2007 or 2008. The watt car revolution is still a long way from taking off. Yet, judging from the number of EVs (electric vehicles) about to hit the showroom, the force is with them, and the recently launched, appealing Nissan Leaf — the world's first practical electric car — will no doubt electrify overall EV sales.
Thus far, the trendsetters tend to be in two disparate sectors: small hatchbacks, designed to travel city streets stench-free (such as the Leaf, electric Smart, Mini E and Mitsubishi i-MiEV) and high-speed sports cars. The latter — epitomised by the American-funded but British-built Tesla — is perhaps the more surprising genre. You just don't expect electric cars to look like Ferraris and jump from 0 to 60mph in under four seconds. In fact, you don't expect them to do 0-60 at all. Yet there is nothing nowadays to prevent an EV from pulling in the horizon fast. The past problem is the pathetic power capacity of their old-fashioned batteries. Fit new-fangled lithium ion batteries, as the latest EVs do, and a whole new performance envelope opens.
The other reason why sports cars suit electrification is that, as with small city commuter cars, they typically don't do big daily mileages. Even the latest EVs have driving ranges of only 100 miles or so. Sports cars are usually enjoyed in quick blasts on sunny Sundays.
A similar logic is behind what is probably the most surprising new EV of all, the Rolls-Royce Phantom 102EX. Rolls-Royces are typically low-mileage urban cars, so theoretically ideal for electrification. And the 102EX, is about as far from a milk float as a bottle of semi-skimmed is from a magnum of Bollinger. It's the biggest, most luxurious and most expensive (about £1m if it went into production) EV of all. In fact, it's a prototype that Rolls- Royce says may never reach the showroom. (It is currently on a world tour to gauge customer reaction.) Yet some sort of future EV Rolls-Royce is likely, for the good reason that it makes perfect sense.
As Rolls-Royce's former CEO Tom Purves told me when he first sanctioned work on the project: "A Rolls-Royce stands for quietness and refinement. And no car offers greater mechanical silkiness than a good electric car. Second, a Rolls-Royce has to have effortless 'wafting' performance and instant torque. The latest breed of EVs can do this."
That effortless power is helped, on the 102EX, by what looks like the largest bank of batteries ever fitted to a car. The 102EX drives like a good Rolls-Royce, only better: instant creamy acceleration, astonishing smoothness and a complete absence of any mechanical clatter. It makes the silken V12 from the petrol-powered Phantom sound like a Transit diesel. It is the most refined and comfortable car I have ever driven. Mechanical noise is so nonexistent that the sound deadening that typically pads the engine compartment of the Phantom has been removed. The only noise you can hear, as speed builds, is the distant whoosh of big tyres rolling on tarmac.
Innovations include an induction charging plate: simply park your 102EX on it to recharge automatically. A further reason why an EV Rolls-Royce is likely is that Rolls's owner, BMW, is at the forefront of the electric revolution, with an upcoming range of radically different vehicles that are about as far removed from old school EVs as the Spirit of St Louis is from the Space Shuttle.
Gavin Green is a motoring journalist and consultant
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