In 1900, Rolls-Royce founder Charles Stewart Rolls remarked, “The electric car is perfectly noiseless and clean. There is no smell or vibration. They should become very useful when fixed charging stations can be arranged.”
Some 122 years later, Rolls-Royce has revealed the Spectre, what the marque breathlessly calls an “Ultra-Luxury Electric Super Coupe.”
“This is the start of a bold new chapter for our marque, our extraordinary clients and the luxury industry,” said CEO Torsten Müller-Ötvös of Rolls’ first EV. “For this reason, I believe Spectre is the most perfect product that Rolls-Royce has ever produced.”
Only test drives will reveal whether Charles Stewart Rolls’ prophecy has been fulfilled, but like every ride baring the Spirit of Ecstasy ornament, the Spectre is aesthetically alluring and decidedly luxurious.
Starting with that iconic, angel-winged woman, she’s been aerodynamically tuned over 830 hours of wind tunnel testing and placed atop Rolls’ widest and flushest Pantheon grille yet.
Eyes are drawn to the Spectre’s fastback, which completes a sleek, almost supercar-like greenhouse that boasts the lowest drag coefficient of any Rolls to date.
The company adds that the lower line, known as the “waft line,” was inspired by watercraft, with coachwork gently tucked into the sill to reflect the road beneath like yacht’s hull reflects water. The body rides on gargantuan 23-inch wheels with a gorgeous pinwheel design.
The battery is integral to the aluminum architecture, which has been crafted specifically for the Spectre to be 30 percent stiffer than any of its kin. Performance specs are preliminary, but tests indicate the 430 KW powertrain will have a range of 320 miles and an output of 663.8 pound-feet of torque, good for a 60-mph sprint of 4.4 seconds.
And as is the case with new car Rolls produces, one would be remiss not to mention the Spectre’s remarkably appointed interior. Designers have doubled down on the starry theme championed by the brand’s many headliners with the first application of Starlight Doors, which incorporate 4,796 softly illuminated “stars.” There are over 5,500 more of these atmospheric lights integrated into the passenger side of the dashboard.
Rolls-Royce’s Bespoke division will of course allow customers to completely customize their interior with trims, features, upholstery, embroidery and more, but for the first time, they can also uniquely define how they interact the car digitally via the new SPIRIT software.
More details on SPIRIT and Spectre features will be revealed when the first examples are delivered at the end of 2023.
