Rolls-Royce has ripped the veil off its first battery-powered car of the modern era, the Spectre.
The opulent electric vehicle (EV) has now entered its final stages of testing before the first customer deliveries take place in the fourth quarter of 2023.
In terms of pricing, the Spectre “will be positioned between Cullinan and Phantom,” said Rolls-Royce, giving it a ballpark pricing figure of at least R10 million.
Rolls-Royce enters the future
The Spectre competes in an entirely new arena for Rolls-Royce and is dubbed an “ultra-luxury electric super coupe.”
In designing the EV, the marque’s creatives drew inspiration from modern yacht concepts with clear, prominent lines, bestowing upon the Spectre the widest Pantheon grille of any vehicle in the manufacturer’s catalogue.
The vanes of the grille are fit more flush to guide air around the body as there’s no need for cooling an engine anymore, resulting in an “unprecedented drag coefficient” of 0.25Cd making this coupe the most aerodynamic Rolls-Royce ever.
No fewer than 22 LEDs also light up the rear side of each vane illuminating the mantlepiece, and above it sits an “aero-tuned” Spirit of Ecstacy figurine which itself took 830 combined hours of design modelling and wind tunnel testing to complete.
Flanking the polished stainless steel Pantheon are split LED headlights and daytime running lights akin to those on its half-sibling, the new BMW i7, with the lower lamp clusters seeing “jewellery box-like” chromium housings for a darkened look.
Following the swooping coupe roofline to the rear, the LED tail lamps are set into the largest single-body panel ever produced for a vehicle from this automaker, extending all the way from the A-pillar to the luggage compartment.
These clusters were kept neutral in colour so as to not clash with the design choices of the owners.
Rolling on top of 23-inch wheels, the electric Rolls-Royce then measures 5,453mm long, 2,080mm wide, and 1,559mm tall at a kerb weight of 2,975kg.
Opening the suicide doors reveals the typical extravagance you’d expect from this manufacturer, complete with the starlight roof lining made from thousands of gleaming fibre-optic cables set into the roof by hand.
New for the Spectre is also a nameplate surrounded by over 5,500 lights which took two years to develop, and for the first time on a series production Rolls-Royce, Starlight Doors can also be had which incorporate 4,796 of these stars.
Moreover, Spectre debuts a new digital “decentralised intelligence” system named Spirit that allows for the direct exchange of information between more than 1,000 vehicle functions.
“Not only will Spirit manage the motor car’s functions, but it is seamlessly integrated into the marque’s Whispers application, allowing clients to interact with their car remotely, and receive live information curated by the marque’s luxury intelligence specialists,” said Rolls-Royce.
The software also allows further personalisation for buyers as they are now able to tailor the colour of the dials to their own tastes.
Finally, the EV gets an all-new seat design with lapel sections available in various shades, with bespoke stitching, embroidery, and piping options further offered.
Electric architecture
Preliminary performance figures for the new Spectre show that the coupe will generate approximately 430kW and 900Nm when it eventually reaches the public road late next year.
At an energy consumption rating of 21.5kWh/100km the Rolls will afford up to 520km of range, and if the driver so wants it can also rocket from 0-100km/h in 4.5 seconds.
There has been no word from the company about figures such as top speed, battery size, and charging times, unfortunately, so expect this to be revealed at a later date.
Surrounding the electric powertrain is a “Planar” suspension system that uses a new suite of hardware harnessing the EV’s faster brain to provide an even smoother ride.
It does this by decoupling the anti-roll bars allowing each wheel to act independently to reduce the rocking motion when going over uneven surfaces.
If a corner is identified, however, the components will recouple and the dampers stiffen to prime the four-wheel-steering system for turning.
Complementing the electric powertrain is the new Rolls-Royce 3.0 chassis architecture making the Spectre 30% stiffer than any of its predecessors. It also allows for a lower floorboard and as a result, a lower seating position, and almost 700kg of sound deadening keeps the passenger cell quiet.
For the final stages of testing, the Spectre will now be sent across Southern Africa in temperatures of up to 55°C before it’s deemed worthy of bearing the Rolls-Royce badge.
Rolls-Royce Spectre
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