Rolls-Royce plans to use hydrogen in its future electric cars, replacing the battery with a fuel cell

Rolls-Royce recently unveiled its very first electric car, dubbed the Spectre. It is an imposing coupe measuring almost 5.5 meters long and weighing three tonnes, equipped with a large capacity battery giving it a range of over 500 km.

The Specter marks the start of a new era for Rolls-Royce, with the introduction of electric vehicles which will be further developed in the future. However, the famous British brand is also planning to evolve its technology by possibly abandoning large batteries and turning to hydrogen fuel cells.

Hydrogen infrastructure on standby

More and more automakers are integrating hydrogen into their future plans, while some companies have been working for many years on technology to incorporate hydrogen into their production cars in different ways.

BMW is one of the brands that has been investing in hydrogen for a long time. In 2007, it produced a small series of the hydrogen-powered BMW 7 Series (featuring a hydrogen-powered V12 combustion engine, not a fuel cell). Last year, BMW also started production of the new hydrogen-powered BMW iX5. However, it seems that the German company's commitment to hydrogen is even stronger for the future.

In this line, Rolls-Royce, the luxury brand of the BMW group, has just joined the list of car manufacturers planning to harness this energy in the future. This was announced by CEO Torsten Müller-Ötvös in an interview with Autocar.

According to British media, Rolls-Royce plans to produce fuel cell electric cars rather than battery electric models, such as the Rolls-Royce Spectre, which recently became the British brand's first zero-emission vehicle.

The Specter is one of the electric vehicles with the largest battery capacity on the European market. This 5.45 meter long and 576 horsepower coupé uses a lithium-ion battery with a capacity of 120 kWh (net capacity of 110 kWh) to offer a range of 520 km in the WLTP combined cycle.

The problem lies in its weight. This British model weighs 2,975 kg, which is 240 kg more than the gigantic Rolls-Royce Cullinan, an SUV equipped with a V12 petrol engine. Despite this, Rolls-Royce claims that the Specter accelerates from 0 to 100 km/h in 4.5 seconds. However, almost 3 tons is a considerable weight for any car, especially for a model that aims to be sporty and luxurious.

Currently, the only way to increase the range of an electric car is to increase the capacity of its battery. However, hydrogen could potentially change this situation in the future.

In addition to offering various advantages over electric batteries, such as faster refueling than any type of recharging, hydrogen is evolving with the development of fuel cells and refueling infrastructure.

At present, these infrastructures are mainly present in Japan and Korea, but more and more car manufacturers are integrating hydrogen into their plans. Rolls-Royce is also the first luxury car manufacturer to openly address this technology.

According to Autocar, Torsten Müller-Ötvös expresses his preference for the hydrogen fuel cell over the hydrogen combustion engine, which is also being considered to take advantage of this energy source. He explains: "I would not consider a hydrogen combustion engine in any way, because that was already tested years ago", referring to the experimentation of a BMW 7 Series equipped with a combustion engine. hydrogen in the 2000s.

Müller-Ötvös points out that using hydrogen in this way is not the most efficient, and says that if hydrogen is used in the future, it will be through fuel cells. He compares fuel cells to a battery, explaining that this is how energy is obtained. He adds: "When the time is right and the technology is advanced, why not? We could put the batteries aside and focus on the fuel cell", says the CEO of Rolls-Royce.

The director of the Goodwood-based company also acknowledges the advantages of battery-electric cars over fuel-cell ones, at least as far as his own vehicles are concerned. He points out that most of his customers have large garages where the installation of charging stations is easy, while it is more complicated to have a hydrogen generator at home.

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Ammonia saved mankind for the first time. Now I could do it again with hydrogen.

That's why Rolls-Royce is closely monitoring developments in hydrogen fueling infrastructure to assess the viability of hydrogen cars. For now, the company is not ruling it out for the future, as are other manufacturers such as BMW, Toyota, Hyundai, Stellantis, Honda and Yamaha.