Rolls Royce Spectre – The Company’s First Luxury Electric Vehicle

As the leaves turn shades of orange and begin to fall and with Halloween right around the corner, what a perfect time for Rolls Royce to introduce to us the Spectre. While it instantly made me think of James Bond, the spectre is of course named by Rolls Royce connecting the dots between the company’s similarly spectral monikers, such as Wraith, Ghost and Phantom.

The big news of course is that the Rolls Royce Spectre is the company’s initial foray into the world of electric vehicles. What kept them? You may well wonder, and the answer might be that Rolls has put the new Spectre EV through the most thorough testing regime of any Rolls Royce that has ever existed. Clearly, the company plans to get this very very right.

While it is likely that the Spectre might be the successor to the Phantom, these vehicles look very different to each other. The Phantom is, if you will, a ghost from the past, while the Spectre is more James Bond than Rolls might like to admit to. It has a sleek sportscar coupé vibe with roof and rear boot lines blurring. It takes the profile of the Wraith and pushes those boundaries a little further. Yet it also maintains the much-loved class and dignity that Rolls Royce models historically convey.

By the time 2030 arrives, Rolls Royce plans to have its entire range electrified, and if the Spectre is to generate the future, then you can understand why the testing has been so intense. Outside, the Spectre makes use of subtle LED lighting; with wide-set LEDs at the rear and classily slim LED running lights above the front headlights. The whole thing sits on the Architecture of Luxury, which despite sounding like an eighties New Romantic band is in fact Rolls’ existing aluminium spaceframe, a multi-use frame that can encompass electric powertrains as well as catering for more traditional combustion engine models. The spaceframe is designed to be highly adaptable. The chassis also houses the battery, furthering Rolls Royce’s admirably successful attempts to keep the interior of all their vehicles as quiet as possible.

The famous grille is still there of course, and it matches beautifully with a set of stunning looking 23-inch alloy wheels. The doors are rear-hinged and measure 1.5-metres in length and can be opened and closed via a button – Rolls asks us to think of this as a built-in chauffeur; it’s at this point in proceedings that you really begin to realise that Rolls Royce is most definitely not going to be downgrading or compromising on luxury with the advent of its first EV.

The warm gold colour we see here is inspired by the tones inherent in the French liqueur, Chartreuse, and it makes up the bulk of the Aero Two-Tone finish, which adds a black hue that sweeps from the bonnet across the roof to the rear of the car, like a shadow. It’s incredibly striking looking vehicle. Inside, the Spectre makes use of SPIRIT, Rolls’ new digital architecture – this will look after the control of everything electrical, including the Whisper app that comes with the car.

Rolls hasn’t trickled much in the way of specs as yet, but the Rolls Royce Spectre will give out 900Nm torque and 576bhp, so expect a 0-60mph of less than 5 seconds.

The production models are probably a year or so away and will be built in the Rolls Royce factory at Goodwood. As you might expect, you will be able to configure the Spectre to match your preferences, and while pricing hasn’t been indicated yet, it’s certainly going to sit firmly in the luxury car bracket.

Images: rolls-roycemotorcars.com