British luxury carmaker, Rolls-Royce, has made a very generous and quite unique contribution to St Richards Hospital in Chichester, England in the form of a bespoke electric car that they have named the Rolls Royce SRH. The car is destined to become the wheels of choice in the paediatric surgery unit where the young patients will be able to drive themselves into the operating theatre to help ease the anxiety of the kids.
A Rolls-Royce spokesperson described the car as being styled after the Rolls-Royce Wraith, and is finished in a two-tone “Andalusia White and Salamanca Blue” livery, which made us wonder just who the heck comes up with these names for car paints? This could be seen as a major change of direction for Rolls-Royce as this will be the first EV it has ever produced; however, the 12-volt battery will only give a top speed of 16kph but will be limited to about 6kph in the hospital, so don’t expect to see any on the road anytime soon.
The company’s trade mark ‘Spirit of Ecstasy’ takes pride of place on the bonnet and the interior is finished in red leather for that genuine luxury feel, and it even has a two-tone steering wheel. The car was actually created by apprentices and their supervisors after hours, and whilst they are proud of how the car demonstrates the level of skills and expertise of Rolls-Royce staff, they claim to be more proud of the fact that they could give something back to their local community.
The hospital will have traffic signals in the corridors to control ‘traffic’ and to make the experience a bit more realistic, apparently. Two lucky patients of St Richards were present at the handover ceremony where they got an exclusive tour of the factory, and the car was unveiled in much the same way as when Rolls-Royce shows its cars to VIP’s because, after all, it is a Rolls-Royce regardless of the size.
