Driving the one-and-only electric Rolls-Royce

The Rolls-Royce 102EX is a fully electric plug-in version of the Rolls-Royce Phantom. The only one like it in the world, it was built to gauge customer response to the very idea of an electric ultra-luxury sedan.
There's no price on this car because, at least so far, it's for display purposes only. (A regular gasoline-powered Phantom costs at least $380,000.) When asked how much it cost to develop the 102EX, Rolls-Royce representatives would only say, "buckets."
Rolls-Royce provided an opportunity to drive the car during a New York City stop on its around-the-world tour.
Click ahead for more about the world's only electric Rolls-Royce.

The name, 102EX, comes from the age of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars at the time this car was built -- 102 -- and EX for "experimental."
Rolls-Royce claims a total driving range of 125 miles following a full eight-hour charge. If true, that's remarkable, considering this car weights almost 6,000 pounds, or about 500 pounds more than a Chevrolet Tahoe SUV.
The 102EX can be recharged by either plugging it in through the elegant-looking charge port, shown here, or by using "induction charging." Induction charging works without cables or plugs. The car is simply parked in a special parking space and electricity is transferred magnetically between the ground and the car.

All the leather inside the 102EX is tanned using natural vegetable dies. There is no wood trim here, either. The surfaces that would ordinarily be covered with wood are, instead, coated with a material made from woven glass fibers.
Despite all the use of natural, renewable materials, the project manager for the 102EX insisted that this was not a "green car" project.
Most Rolls-Royce buyers are not, apparently, terribly concerned with that sort of thing. The emphasis has been, instead, on exploring how Rolls-Royce can remain relevant as technology -- and consumer expectations -- change in the future.

One benefit of being such a massive car is that there was plenty of room to fit a gigantic battery and paint-bucket-sized electric motors without compromising all-important interior space.
The back seats and trunk in the 102EX are just as big and roomy as they are in the gasoline-powered car. In fact, there's actually a little more room since there was no need for a transmission tunnel running down the center of the car.
That allowed extra space to put in a floor-level champagne cooler while still having three-across seating.

The 102EX feels -- and, in fact, is -- a bit slower than the V12-powered Phantom. While the Phantom can rocket to 60 miles an hour in a surprising 5.7 seconds, the 102EX takes about eight seconds to work up that sort of speed.
Some of the 102EX's more casual off-the-line feel is deliberate, Rolls-Royce says. If they'd wanted, they could have programmed the "gas pedal" to provide snappier response, but that seemed out of character.
As in the gasoline-powered car, the front-to-rear weight balance is nearly perfect. When pushed hard -- which we weren't able to do in the 102EX -- the Phantom is a surprisingly athletic car. The 102EX weighs more but felt just as easy and predictable to drive, at least at ordinary speeds.

The biggest question about the 102EX is probably "Who wants one?"
The answer, so far, is nobody. As it nears the end of its world tour, not a single Rolls-Royce customer has asked to buy one, at any price.
That doesn't mean the notion of a plug-in Rolls-Royce will never fly. But, for now, the world's moneyed elite just aren't ready to sacrifice their V12s and all that extra driving range..