QUIET ACHIEVER
Rolls-Royce is embracing the digital world with its first BEV, the Spectre
Rolls-Royce chief executive Torsten Muller-Otvos says the new Spectre is a “Rolls-Royce first and an electric car second”.
But it’s very much an electric car: the marque’s first battery electric vehicle (BEV), to be launched a mere 123 years after Charles Stewart Rolls declared EVs to be “perfectly noiseless and clean . . . [and] should become very useful when fixed charging stations can be arranged”.
Rolls-Royce is still in the final stages of development for a car that will be delivered from the last quarter of 2023, but it indicates the three-tonne car will have 430kW/520Nm, a range of 520km (WLTP) and accelerate from 0-100km/h in 4.5 seconds.
The company also claims the Spectre’s new architecture is 30 per cent stiffer than any previous Rolls-Royce. It’s destined to underpin future models, as the brand works towards a completely electric line-up by 2030.
The new Planar suspension system is fully active: it can decouple the anti-roll bars when necessary so each wheel can act independently.
Spectre has the widest grille ever fitted to a Rolls-Royce; but the vanes are now smoother, for optimum aerodynamics. Even the Spirit of Ecstasy figure has been “aero tuned” through 830 hours of design modeling.
Spectre is technically a replacement for the Phantom Coupe, although the fastback profile owes a lot to the smaller Wraith. RollsRoyce says it’s a full four-seater; the sheer size of the vehicle has necessitated the standard fitment of 23-inch wheels, to maintain the correct visual proportions.
A “Starlight” effect on the cabin roof has been a feature of previous Rolls-Royces, but the Spectre has it on the coach doors, which incorporate 4796 individual lights. A further 5500 stars are featured on the illuminated dashboard.
Rolls-Royce is promising “near-infinite” possibilities from its Bespoke division for the new model. Customers can commission not just the physical environment of the car, but also the digital architecture — matching the colour of the instrumentation to the interior, for example.