Rolls-Royce Drivers Ambivalent About Electric Models, CEO Says

Rolls-Royce Motor Cars customers have been ambivalent about potential electric versions of the luxury- auto maker’s vehicles, and hybrid models may be a possibility, Chief Executive Officer Torsten Mueller-Oetvoes said.

Rolls-Royce has been showing customers a one-of-a-kind electric version of its Phantom sedan to gather opinions on whether the automaker should produce such a vehicle. Buyers of the $380,000 Phantom and $245,000 Ghost models often live on the outskirts of major cities and may not accept an electric car’s 100-mile range, Mueller-Oetvoes said in an interview today.

“Let’s wait and see what our customers are telling us, but hybrids have a certain capability to deliver both electric driving combined with a normal combustion engine, and that might be a solution,” he said in Bloomberg’s Chicago bureau.

No customers have approached the Goodwood, England-based automaker to ask for electric versions of the cars, which now feature 12-cylinder engines, Mueller-Oetvoes said.

The automaker, a unit of Munich-based Bayerische Motoren Werke AG (BMW), is targeting record sales this year after the smaller Ghost model helped to almost triple global deliveries to 2,711 in 2010.

To contact the reporter on this story: Kevin Orland in Chicago at korland@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jamie Butters at jbutters@bloomberg.net.

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June 2 (Bloomberg) -- Torsten Mueller-Oetvoes, chief executive officer of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Ltd., talks about the luxury automaker's global sales and outlook for growth in Asia, the Middle East and U.S. Mueller-Oetvoes also discusses the electric version of Rolls-Royce's Phantom sedan and the company's partnership with Mini. Rolls-Royce Motor Cars and Mini are both owned by Bayerische Motoren Werke AG. Mueller-Oetvoes speaks with Adam Johnson on Bloomberg Television's "Bottom Line." Bloomberg's Mark Crumpton also speaks. (Source: Bloomberg)