Apparently it’s not exclusive enough to get driven around in a Rolls Royce Phantom. No, you need to stand out from the crowd even more – and that’s what Stuart Hughes of Liverpool decided to do, creating the Rolls Royce Phantom Solid Gold. Can you guess what its main feature is?

Dubbed as “the most unique car,” the Rolls Royce Phantom Solid Gold represents a collaboration between Hughes and Eurocash AG of Zug Switzerland. This pimped out Phantom gains an incredible 120kg of solid 18 karat gold. To help protect you from would-be thieves and paparazzi, the car is also fully armored. It’s been ballistically tested against everything from an AK47 to a Dragunov, not to mention hand grenades. That puts your high-end Vertu or Gresso phone to shame, eh?

There’s gold inside and out, bumping the cost of this customized Phantom up to £5 million GBP, or about $8.16 million USD. It took 18 months of work and while you’d think this would be the perfect car for Goldmember, it somewhat unsurprisingly went to “an anonymous Middle Eastern businessman.” Yeah, there’s still plenty of money in oil.

[via: stuarthughes.com]

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The whole concept of what it means to be an electric vehicle has really started to shift in the last few years. From the Tesla Roadster to Nissan’s electric concept, you can’t say they’re not fast anymore. With the annnouncement of the Rolls Royce 102EX, you can’t say they’re not luxurious anymore either.

Set to make its official debut at the Geneva Motor Show on March 1, the Rolls Royce 102EX is effectively a fully electric version of the company’s iconic Phantom. That’s the good news. The bad news, at least for electric-friendly wealthy landowners is that the 102EX is a one-off, at least for now.

CEO Torsten Muller-Otvos is quick to point out that the Rolls Royce 102EX is the “world’s first battery electric vehicle for the ultra-luxury segment.” Also known as the Phantom Experimental Electric (EE), the 102EX is being used as a testing bed for differnet drivetrains and other features so that they can refine the ride to suit their market.

Seeing how hybrids eventually made their way into luxury SUVs and other larger vehicles, I’m somehow not surprised that the whole EV thing has started to infiltrate segments that you wouldn’t otherwise consider for an electric vehicle. How the 102EX pans out could point toward an electric Bentley, Maybach, or any number of other luxury vehicles.

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