First Look: Rolls-Royce reveals its stunning, all-electric Spectre
It’s the world’s first Ultra-Luxury Electric Super Coupé
Written by Howard Walker
October 18, 2022
The silk has finally been pulled back to reveal what is set to be the most exciting, most significant, most desirable luxury car of 2023, the all-new, all-electric Rolls-Royce Spectre.
It’s the car being labeled by Rolls as the world’s first “Ultra-Luxury Electric Super Coupé,” and the car company CEO, Torsten Mǖller-Ötvos, describes it as “the most perfect product Rolls-Royce has ever produced.”
But don’t rush for your Amex Centurion card just yet. The first cars won’t be delivered until the fourth quarter of next year, when it will be priced between the Cullinan SUV and Phantom, somewhere around $400,000.
These first photos show a sleek, bold, uber-luxury two-door coupe that will enjoy all the luxury car benefits of electric propulsion, like instant torque, silent running and peerless refinement.
And, as you might expect, it’ll have spirited performance. With electric motors front and rear delivering a combined 577-hp and 664 lb-ft of torque, Rolls predicts it will waft from 0-to-60mph in 4.4 seconds and have a top speed of 155mph.
As for that all-important range, the current estimate is around 260 miles – fairly mediocre compared to the likes of long-rangers like the Lucid Air with 520 miles and Tesla‘s Model S at 405 miles. But Mǖller-Ötvos says Spectre owners aren’t worried as most of their journeys tend to be around town. For longer trips, they simply take the jet.
While Rolls-Royce considers this new Spectre to be the spiritual successor to its two-door Phantom Coupé (2008 to 2016), design-wise it has more in common – especially in profile – to the recently departed Wraith.
But it certainly shares the Phantom’s head-spinning presence on the road. At 214 inches nose to tail, it’s around seven inches shorter though almost four inches wider. Yet, its bulk is cleverly disguised with the use of towering 23-inch wheels.
Gazing at the Spectre in profile reveals its true elegance, with that endless fastback roofline, the tall waist, swept-back windshield and oh-so elegant crease line that runs back from the mile-long door handles.
The front-end sees the biggest design changes. That trademark Pantheon grille is there, set between new pencil-thin LED headlights, but it’s wider than on any Rolls, and features vertical vanes that look almost closed. Instead of taking-in air for cooling, they now guide air around the front for better aerodynamics.
Talking of aeronautics, Spectre is the most aerodynamic Rolls ever, boasting an impressive Cd drag coefficient of just 0.25. Even the iconic Flying Lady on the “bonnet” has been re-profiled to crouch a little lower so as to slip through the air more efficiently.
Open the trademark rear-hinged coach doors and prepare for shock and awe. In addition to the much-loved Starlight Headliner, Rolls will also be offering Starlight Doors splattered with almost 4,800 twinkly lights. Paris’ Eiffel Tower in full shimmer mode won’t come close to this.
And on the car shown here, the front and rear seats are colored in a polarizing palette of green-gold and fuchsia to “pop” against all that stark-white leather everywhere else.
Beneath all this, the Spectre rides on a modified version of the company’s so-called “Architecture of Luxury” aluminum spaceframe chassis used in everything from the latest Ghost to the Phantom. Integrating the battery pack into the structure is said to make the Spectre 30 per cent stiffer than any previous Rolls.
With Rolls-Royce committed to going fully electric by 2030, this new Spectre is a vital first step in the journey. We hope the boss is right when he says it will be the “most perfect” Rolls ever.
