Once around Lake Geneva
- then the Rolls Royce must be plugged into the socket. Lufthansa Cargo flies the only battery-powered Rolls Royce from Frankfurt to Japan
Even for the experienced logistics specialists from Lufthansa Cargo, this freight was not run-of-the-mill. The cargo airline had transported a Rolls Royce to Japan for presentation purposes, which was absolutely unique – and which will never be produced in series. The British noble-car manufacturer, which belongs to the BMW-Group, had built a Phantom which runs solely on electricity. Rolls Royce wants to test how their millionaire-clientele reacts to the eco-friendly Rolls Royce and at the same time wants to document, that technical innovation is not exclusively USP of Japanese automakers.
John Lundlam is a Jack of all trades. He’s a bodyguard, chauffeur, butler and, if necessary, a fountain of information. He knows everything about his “baby”: He looks after it, drives it himself around the Frankfurt airport from the truck onto the aircraft loading pallet, which will be shoved through the huge loading hatch of a Lufthansa Cargo jet freighter later on.
The first and only Rolls Royce with electric drive is on its way to Japan. After its introduction at the Geneva Motor Show at the beginning of March, there followed appearances in Beijing, Singapore and the USA as well as a subsequent tour around Europe. Lufthansa Cargo flew the Phantom Experimental Electric (Phantom EE) to the Land of the Rising Sun and finally to further destinations in the Middle East. A Rolls Royce with two separate 145 kW electric motors on the rear axle instead of the 6.7 liter V12 with 460 PS – that was definitely the sensation of the Geneva Motor Show in March. For the first time the public was able to marvel at a luxury car with electric drive and only specially selected persons were allowed to drive the Rolls-Royce 102 up until now.
The driving pleasure, however, is definitely finite. According to Frank Tiemann, spokesperson for Rolls Royce in Europe, the longest test-drive circumnavigated Lake Geneva only once. That is exactly 180 kilometers and the test car, which is not for sale, could not have driven much further. According to Rolls Royce, the maximum range of the limousine, which is painted in a light blue metallic color called “Atlantic Chrome”, is only 200 kilometers – that is, if energy-robbing equipment such as radio, ventilators and air conditioning are not turned on. Although the lithium-nickel-cobalt-manganese-oxide battery weighs a mighty 640kg – it is almost as heavy as a compact automobile – the charge only suffices for a moderate joy ride. Thus, in spite of the gigantic battery, Rolls Royce suffers from the same deficit as all the other electro-autos on the market: the limited driving radius.
And because the batteries in the 102EE are so heavy – the 5.8 meter-long auto weighs with its 2.7 tons, four hundred pounds more than the V12-version – the load capacity is reduced to 300kg. Therefore, when a “normally built” chauffeur sits behind the wheel, there only remains a minimum space of luggage for the rest of the passengers. Although the luxury-prototype is capable of accelerating to 100km per hour in a respectable eight seconds, a top speed of 160 km/h is its limit. The Rolls Royce engineers don’t allow any more, for fear that the auto will have to charge its batteries too frequently. Then, the “long wait” begins. Even connected to a three phase socket, the giant battery takes eight hours to load. Using a conventional household socket, the charging-up can easily take up to 20 hours.
The flight to Japan was quite a bit faster. In spite of a stopover in the Siberian city of Krasnojarsk the MD-11 of Lufthansa Cargo only needed thirteen and a half hours for the 9,400 kilometers to the Tokyo Narita Airport. The local Rolls Royce representative was able to accept the consignment in as good order as it had been when Lufthansa Cargo originally on-loaded the automotive jewel and sent it on its way in Frankfurt.
Cars make up a big part of the traditional clientele for Lufthansa Cargo. In 2010 it amounted to exactly 2,711 vehicles: Brand-new noble vehicles, oldtimers, test cars or also so-called “volume models”, which immediately after their introduction to the market must be delivered as soon as possible to dealers’ show-rooms around the world. For example, the Maybach is flown from Frankfurt to Dubai, the Rolls Royce Ghost heads to China, the Ferrari to Singapore, a noble Mercedes flies to Tokyo and a luxury BMW heads to South Africa.
“Our customers know”, the Product-Manager-in-charge, Brigitta Ebeling emphasizes, “that we will accomplish, what they expect of us”. This counts for the oldtimer worth 1.5 million, which literally must be handled by people wearing gloves, as well as for the VW pick-up, the “Amarok”, which went into production last year exclusively in a plant in the neighborhood of Buenos Aires. In order to secure the delivery of these vehicles to their show-rooms around the world in the fastest possible time, VW chose Lufthansa Cargo. The cars were onloaded by Lufthansa Cargo specialists with the greatest possible care, says Brigitta Eberling. The regulations governing the onloading of potentially dangerous goods were in effect here, because, cars not only usually have a remaining quantity of combustible fuel in their tanks, but also batteries, airbags and seatbelt tensioners, which contain acids and explosive materials. In the case of the Rolls Royce, because of its particularly large battery, the transport had to be cleared in advance with the government agencies responsible for the shipment, Lufthansa Cargo explained Handling Expert Karl Michael Marx.
“No other Rolls Royce ‘whispered’ so quietly as this one”, wrote a professional automobile tester concerning his test-driving in the battery-powered Rolls Royce. But that is still not enough to warrant producing the automobile in series. “We never considered a series-production for this car,” Rolls Royce-Boss Torsten Müller Ötvös emphatically adds. He sees the Phantom 102EE as a tool for market research so that his select customers can render their opinions regarding a possible alternative form of engines for a Rolls Royce. After all, a Rolls Royce must also “satisfy the spirit and the feeling of our customers”.