Unveiling the Rolls-Royce Spectre – the marque’s first all-electric model

Long-awaited and finally here – the Rolls-Royce Spectre is the brand’s first fully electric motor car that paves Rolls-Royce way to an electrified future.

The Rolls-Royce Spectre is the latest example of how the brand has been ahead of its time in terms of luxurious electric vehicles. With this historic milestone, Rolls-Royce has been confirming that by 2030 their entire product portfolio will be fully electric.

Charles Rolls, the co-founder of Rolls-Royce envisioned an electric future in 1900. Back then he saw that there would be an alternative in clean noiseless motors. Today, over 120 years later, the time has come for Rolls-Royce Motor Cars to fulfill the prophecy of its founding father. The Rolls-Royce Spectre demonstrates how perfectly the brand is suited to electrification. In September 2021, the brand confirmed that it had commenced testing of Spectre, the first Rolls-Royce to be conceived and engineered from the very beginning as an all-electric car. In order to meet the highest demands of its consumers, Rolls-Royce has undergone an exhausting testing programme ever conceived before, which means a journey of more than 2.5 million kilometres simulating more than 400 years of use for a Rolls-Royce. 

The design of the Rolls-Royce Spectre

With Spectre, Rolls-Royce sets a new precedent in the creation of an entirely original class of motor car – the Ultra-Luxury Electric Super Coupé. Spectre's indulgent proportions are specified in response to a commitment that there is no greater luxury than that of space.

The inspiration for Spectre comes from far beyond automotive. Haute couture, modernist sculpture, nautical design, tailoring and contemporary art have been playing a vital role. When creating the principal sketches for Spectre, the designers were inspired by modern yacht concepts. They particularly liked how these boats have a clear and precise line with intelligent use of reflection or taper applied in order to emotionalise silhouettes. 

Approaching the front of Spectre, its split headlight treatment is intersected by the widest grille ever awarded to a Rolls-Royce. The vanes of Pantheon's distinctive grill are now smoother in section and fit, designed for better aerodynamics around the front end. The relaxed angle and polished stainless steel finish of the grill do much to enhance Spectre’s presence using environmental reflection. And along with the aero-tuned Spirit Of Ecstasy figurine, that has been taken 830 combined hours of design modeling and wind tunnel testing, the grille enhances the vehicle’s unprecedented drag coefficient, which at just 0.25cd makes Spectre Rolls-Royce’s most aerodynamic car ever.

With its generous proportions and split headlights – a contemporary Rolls-Royce design principle, Spectre clearly acknowledges its ancestor. Its sharp daylight running lights underline its impressive two-metre width and are balanced by lower lamp clusters. In order to emphasise Spectre’s impression by night, the grille is softly illuminated with 22 LEDs. 

In profile, the sharp, vertical bow line at the front of Spectre draws the eye rearward to its monolithic flanks. The lower line – known as the ‘waft line’ – borrows directly from yacht design.

Spectre's most dramatic feature is its fastback. Following the roofline back, the tail lamps are set into the largest single body panel ever of a Rolls-Royce, which extends from the A-pillar to the luggage compartment. The jewel-like vertical tail lamps themselves are colourless for neutrality, in anticipation of the myriad of colourways selected by clients during the commissioning process. Their precision and reduced dimension complement the generous flow of the bodywork from the muscular shoulders backwards into the tail section with its characteristic tapering plan view.

The proportional requirements of the Spectre demanded that Rolls-Royce makes changes to its wheel strategy. Spectre is the first production two-door coupé to feature 23-inch wheels in nearly a century. 

The interior design of Spectre comes along with the most technologically advanced Bespoke features yet, drawing inspiration from the timeless mystique of the night’s sky. It’s the first time on a series production, that a Rolls-Royce car is available with Starlight Doors that incorporate 5.876 softly illuminated ‘stars’. The ethereal night-time theme continues with Spectre’s Illuminated Fascia. The Spectre nameplate surrounded by a cluster of over 5.500 stars is located on the passenger side of the dashboard. The illuminations are completely invisible when the vehicle is not in operation.

Besides, Spectre is equipped with a redesigned digital architecture of luxury called SPIRIT. It not only manages the vehicle’s functions, but is also seamlessly integrated with the brand's Whispers application, allowing customers to remotely interact with their vehicle and receive live information curated by the brand's luxury intelligence specialists.

A Rolls-Royce is a work of art, hand-made to order exclusively for you. And so is the Rolls-Royce Spectre. The interior suite offers clients near-infinite Bespoke possibilities. The all-new front seat design has been inspired by British tailoring, with lapel sections that can be rendered in contrasting or matching colours to the main base. Custom stitching, embroidery and intricate piping have been incorporated into the design as always.

Connectivity and experience

With the Rolls-Royce Spectre, connectivity is being taken on a new level in the history of the brand. Its engineers describe the experience offered by Spectre as akin to “Rolls-Royce in high definition” on account of the speed and accuracy of the motor car’s response to a worldwide spread of road and weather conditions.

For this to be realised, a dedicated control has been handmade for each of the 141.200 sender-receiver variables, and in nearly all cases engineers have designed several more sub-variables for variations in climate, ground speed, road type, vehicle status and driving style. These have been crafted over the course of Spectre’s 2.5 million kilometre testing programme both on advanced proving grounds and on real roads around the world.

Some first technical details of Spectre

As Spectre is still under testing and being optimised, final power, acceleration and range figures are to come with the market launch end of 2023. However preliminary data shows that Spectre is expected to have an all-electric range of 520 kilometres (according to WLTP) and offers 900Nm of torque from its 430kW powertrain. It is anticipated to achieve 0-100km/h in 4.5 seconds.

Pictures: Rolls-Royce for ellectric
Text: Britta Reineke