Rolls-Royce unveils its first-ever EV, the Spectre

GOODWOOD, United Kingdom - Rolls-Royce has unveiled its first ever fully-electric production car, the Spectre, which takes the form of an ultra-luxury two-door four-seater grand touring coupe.

The landmark model is Rolls-Royce’s first step into electrification, and the car is now available to order, with deliveries expected to start for Singapore in the fourth quarter of 2023. We estimate the car’s cost to start at $2 million without a COE or options.

The Spectre measures in at 5,453mm long, 2,080mm wide and 1,559mm tall, with a wheelbase of 3,210mm long. It weighs in at just under 3 tonnes, tipping the scales at 2,975kg, and Rolls-Royce says that the car will be priced in between the Phantom and Cullinan in its line-up.

The car bears all the design hallmarks of a Rolls-Royce, including the trademark grille which Rolls-Royce says is the widest it has ever fitted to its cars, and is illuminated by 22 LED lights hidden behind the vanes. The grille is flanked by split design headlights, with the lower light section featuring darkened chromium housings, and complemented by the slim daytime running lights above it.

The silhouette of the Spectre is that of a fastback, similar to that of the Wraith coupe, and Rolls-Royce says that the profile is meant to emulate that of a yacht. The aerodynamic shape helps give the Spectre the lowest drag coefficient of any Rolls-Royce ever, and features the largest single body panel that Rolls-Royce has ever made, stretching from the A-pillar to the boot. Finally, the Spectre is outfitted with massive 23-inch wheels, the first Rolls-Royce production coupe to be so equipped in over a century.

While the Spectre bears a similar-looking design to the luxury coupes of Rolls-Royce’s recent past, such as its ‘spiritual predecessor’, the Phantom Coupe, it sits on an all-new bespoke aluminium spaceframe architecture that has been designed for the electric digital age.

With the integration of the battery into the structure of the platform, Rolls-Royce says that the Spectre is some 30 percent stiffer than any other previous Rolls-Royce model. The platform also allows for some flexibility in allowing Rolls-Royce to place the car’s wiring and climate control components in between the floor and battery, creating a truly flat underfloor and a sound insulation buffer between the road and the cabin.

Riding under the Spectre is a newly-developed suspension system, called Planar, that combines hardware and software to deliver a magic carpet ride. The system is able to decouple the car’s anti-roll bars, allowing each wheel to act independently and smoothen out road undulations. In addition, it is also able to predict upcoming corners, and prime the suspension and four-wheel-steering system for smoother cornering.

Drivetrain details are still being finalised ahead of the Spectre’s official launch next year, but Rolls-Royce states that it is expected to have a range of 520km on a full charge, and have an output of around 576hp and 900Nm of torque, allowing the Spectre to go from 0-100km/h in 4.5 seconds. The system is based on BMW’s latest eDrive tech, and is expected to use the largest battery pack available in the BMW Group.

Inside, the Spectre’s rearward opening doors feature what Rolls-Royce calls ‘Starlight Doors’, which incorporates some 4,796 illuminated ‘stars’. The theme is continued in the dashboard, with the ‘Illuminated Fascia’ featuring a cluster of over 5,500 stars that light up when the car is in motion.

The Spectre will also feature Rolls-Royce’s new digital architecture, called Spirit, which will be responsible for operating many of the car’s functions.

Spirit will also be integrated with Rolls-Royce’s Whispers app, which lets owners interact with the car remotely, as well as connect them to live information services as needed. The digital architecture also opens up a whole new world of near-unlimited customisation options, with customers able to change the dials and displays to match the car’s exterior colour, for example.

The Spectre marks the start of a new era for Rolls-Royce, with the ultra luxury carmaker aiming to have a fully-electrified lineup by 2030. While the brand has not outlined any detailed EV roadmap as yet, it is expected that the next Ghost and Phantom at least will be electrified in some form over the next decade.

This article was first published in CarBuyer.