Currently reading: Rolls-Royce plans hybrid Ghost

Hybrid model should provide improved performance and fuel consumption

Rolls-Royce is working on a hybrid version of its upcoming luxury saloon, the Ghost.

The Rolls-Royce Ghost hybrid will share the BMW ActiveHybrid 7's green technology. The F01 7-series and the Ghost share the same standard rear-wheel drive platform, so the engineering on the Ghost hybrid has been fairly straightforward.

See the hi-res pics of the Rolls-Royce GhostFull details of the Rolls-Royce Ghost

The Ghost’s 6.2-litre V12 563bhp, 575lb ft petrol engine will be assisted by an electric motor in a mild hybrid application, with no electric only propulsion possible. An automatic start-stop system also comes into play to further reduce fuel consumption.

The car’s 20kW/155lb ft electric motor will be sandwiched into the car’s eight-speed ZF-engineered automatic transmission. Kinetic energy created during overrun and braking will be collected and stored in a 0.6kW/h lithium-ion battery pack mounted in the boot.

There will be no traditional alternator in the Ghost hybrid, with the engine being started via a 20kW electric motor, which should provide a smoother and quieter start-up.

Fuel consumption in the hybrid model should be around 15 per cent better than the standard model, while the extra torque and power provided by the additional battery should provide a subtle improvement to overall performance.

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tonym911 7 November 2009

Re: Rolls-Royce plans hybrid Ghost

They should have put a smaller BMW engine in and hybridised that to achieve a perfectly adequate R-R level of performance and refinement. Simply adding electric propulsion to the output of a monster V12 is a bit ludicrous.

4rephill 7 November 2009

Re: Rolls-Royce plans hybrid Ghost

Rolls Royce can't seem to win when it comes to hybrid technology.

If they don't do anything at all they get accused of being arrogant and not caring at all by enviromentalists.

If they make some effort, as they have here, it's called a waste of time by everybody.

noluddite 6 November 2009

Re: Rolls-Royce plans hybrid Ghost

Peter Cavellini wrote:
hybrid in a car like this is just a sop towards the greens to say "see were going green!" but their not really, i recently read an article which said the Lexus 450h was a hybrid, but what it actually does is go on electric power is about 1.2 miles ,and the only other benifit was extra accelaration nothing more,
I agree. And this one doesn't run on battery power - at all! I just hope the congestion zone controllers aren't fooled. Applying the hybrid term to this is hypocrisy. Some sort of legislation is needed to stop these misleading claims. As a stop-start system however, the new gearbox is a useful development which other manufacturers can use.