[Auto] New Rolls-Royce Spectre starts brand's EV rebirth

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The new Rolls-Royce Spectre will be launched next year as the British luxury brand’s first electric production car, promising refinement and performance on a par with – if not superior to – today’s combustion-powered models while introducing bold new design cues and advanced technical capabilities. 

Based on Rolls-Royce’s aluminium Architecture of Luxury platform – and thus unrelated to parent company BMW’s range-topping EVs – the Spectre arrives as part of a rapid-fire electrification initiative that will result in the West Sussex firm phasing out its V12 engine and selling only electric cars from 2030. 

Company CEO Torsten Müller-Ötvös told Autocar that, in this sense, the Spectre is as important as the 1906 Silver Ghost – Rolls-Royce’s first production effort, hailed by Autocar’s contemporary road testers as “the best car in the world”. 

Available to order now, it will be, he says, “the third pillar” of Rolls-Royce’s line-up in volume terms, slotting in price-wise between the best-selling Cullinan SUV and Ghost to fill the gap left by the now-retired Dawn and Wraith two-door duo. A basic starting price of around £275,000 is expected, but Müller-Ötvös noted that the average transaction price of one of his firm’s cars is now more than £500,000, such is the scope of high-calibre personalisation on offer for each model. 

Powertrain

The Spectre arrives 11 years after the one-off 102EX, an electric prototype based on the Phantom VII that previewed the attributes of future Rolls-Royce EVs. Compared with that concept’s experimental underpinnings, though, the Spectre represents a significant leap in performance and usability. 

Rolls-Royce will release official homologated figures once testing ends in the second quarter of 2023, but it predicts a range of 323 miles between charges – far higher than that of the 102EX – courtesy of a 120kWh battery (one of the largest of any production EV) that is capable of charging at speeds of up to 195kW. 

Meanwhile, with 577bhp and 664lb ft on tap, the Spectre is well placed to take on today’s most potent road-going EVs, with a promised 0-62mph time in the region of 4.5sec. 

Although the Spectre is described as a spiritual successor to the two-door Rolls Royce Phantom Coupé, which bowed out in 2016, it is otherwise unrelated to that car, because all Rolls-Royce EVs will be totally new propositions, rather than electrified re-workings of existing combustion cars. 

Müller-Ötvös said: “It would have been easy to go with a converted Ghost or whatever, but we never intended any conversions. We always wanted to build a real electric Rolls-Royce, designed from the very beginning to be an electric Rolls-Royce and not a compromised conversion car.” 

He strongly hinted that the Cullinan and Ghost – the firm’s two most po[CENSORED]r models – will return in “series two” form (Rolls-Royce parlance for facelifted), keeping the petrol V12, but the electric equivalents to these two cars, due on sale by 2030, will be fundamentally different products. 

Design

Despite its radically different underpinnings – and its alleged billing as the first “ultra-luxury super-coupé” on the market – the Spectre is unmistakably a Rolls-Royce, from its expansive, illuminated chrome grille (the widest that the firm has yet installed) to its rear-hinged doors, slim LED headlights and imposing, cab-back silhouette. 

However, the electric powertrain has necessitated an enhanced focus on aerodynamic efficiency, hence the slightly more rounded front end and boat-style rear. Rolls-Royce claims a drag coefficient of 0.25 Cd, the same as a Tesla Model X. The Spirit of Ecstasy – mascot for the brand since 1911 – has even been subtly redesigned to minimise its impact on airflow over the leading edge of the bonnet. 

Rolls-Royce also highlights the way the Spectre’s bodywork curves inwards along the sills, which reflects the road passing underneath to give “an uncomplicated sense of motion” similar to the hull of a racing yacht, and sweeps upwards towards the front end of the car to give the impression of an accelerating boat. 

“In going electric, we wanted to go with a truly emotional car. That’s the reason we decided on a fastback coupé,” MüllerÖtvös said of the Spectre’s bodystyle, which is unlike any other car currently on sale. 

Chassis 

Tipping the scales at 2975kg, the Spectre is comfortably Rolls-Royce’s heaviest car yet, but extensive re-engineering for electrification means it is also the stiffest – and has the firm’s most advanced suspension system to date. 

The Spectre’s EV-specific chassis represents what the company calls ‘Rolls-Royce 3.0’ – the third iteration of its bespoke architecture since launching the previous-gen Phantom in 2003. The priority for this structure was to offer a “continuity of experience from its current portfolio”, meaning refinement and dynamic capability on a par with the Ghost, Phantom and Cullinan. 

The use of extruded aluminium sections and integrating the battery into the vehicle structure results in a 30% boost in stiffness, according to the company. The added benefits of an under-floor battery also include a totally flat cabin floor, low seating position and “almost 700kg of sound deadening” between the occupants and the road. 

“The way waftability is delivered in a Spectre is different from what you would experience in a Ghost or a Cullinan,” said Müller-Ötvös. “You’re not going into any Tesla-style ‘Ludicrous’ modes or whatever, but the car wafts in an unexperienced way: spectacular.” 

https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/new-cars/new-rolls-royce-spectre-starts-brands-ev-rebirth