Electric Rolls would stay true

Rolls-Royce CEO may envisage an EV wearing the Spirit of Ecstasy, but don’t expect it to look like a Prius. That’s the advice from the iconic British marque’s head of design, Giles Taylor.

Speaking at the recent Frankfurt Motor Show, Taylor told motoring.com.au that electric drivelines won’t necessarily change the design of the vehicles.

In fact, according to Taylor, the next step-change will more likely come about from “revolutions” in material and assembly technologies.

“That’s a great design question... So, if I take my Rolls Royce cap off, I’ve always been sort of rather disappointed with how any design team – including design teams I’ve been in and worked for – have approached the whole electric [vehicle styling] question,” Taylor commented.

“I believe in the luxury area where Rolls-Royce sits, we don’t need to suddenly style a [battery-powered] vehicle differently.

“We have an extremely silent, beautifully refined V12 right now, that just happens to have nice ringtone when you reach 7000 [rpm] in a Wraith… For most people it doesn’t matter [what is providing the performance]… So, you know, if you say in, say five years, well, your V12 was taken out five years ago [and] you’ve had electric power. [They’ll answer] Really?” Taylor explained.

“So I wouldn’t want to style a vehicle differently just because something under the bonnet has changed.

“But being quite open as a group, the BMW Group, and being a subsidiary, a brand of BMW, electric vehicles are coming… And we can’t be this dinosaur that thinks this V12 can be the only thing in 10-12 years hence,” he said.

In Taylor’s opinion the next change in Rolls-Royce’s design language is more likely to be linked with materials and assembly technologies.

“If something says we can now give you fantastic new space-age materials, construct a lightweight chassis and you can 3D print something or another, I’d go like great…

“Because now that bloody joint in the bumper, those assembly-minded or pressed-metal steel [parts are redundant]… and I can develop an aesthetic based on revolution of materials and then authentically I can design for a new age,” Taylor enthused.

“But I’m not going, in some fake way, to try to design something that has to look differently because it has an electric motor… Come a revolution of material, come a revolution of assembly techniques there’ll be an aesthetic that will naturally flow,” he said.