Rolls-Royce ‘Spectre’ EV confirmed for 2023

RR won't be making any combustion engined cars come 2030; the revolution starts here…

By Matt Bird / Wednesday, September 29, 2021 / Loading comments

Even the small announcements are a big deal at Rolls-Royce, so it should come as no surprise that confirmation of its electric era is being presented with considerable ceremony. For Rolls-Royce this is nothing less than “a prophecy fulfilled”, CEO Torsten Muller Otvos suggesting that today is the “most significant day in the history of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars since May 4, 1904”, the day Charles and Henry first met. And quite a lot has happened in the 117 years since then…

Today’s news is that the electric Rolls is coming sooner than many probably expected. Having promised an EV sometime this decade, it’s now apparent a car currently known as ‘Spectre’ will come to market in the fourth quarter of 2023. It’s part of Rolls’ bigger plan to entirely phase out ICE by 2030. Or as Otvos puts it: “By then, Rolls-Royce will no longer be in the business of producing or selling an internal combustion engine products.” Just so we’re all clear.

Spectre will be built on the architecture that underpins the Phantom, Ghost and Cullinan, which might sound like a backward step given how progressive an electric Rolls will have to be. But the proprietary aluminium platform was always designed to be scalable, and to accommodate alternative power sources. This has been the plan for years, basically.

Don’t expect just an electric Ghost from the Spectre, either. We’re told to expect an “extraordinary Rolls-Royce”, one that “makes its presence felt before disappearing into a world inaccessible to all but the very few.” That said, the silhouette of this oddly disguised prototype doesn’t deviate too far from what we might expect, looking a little like reimagination of the two-door Wraith. What an experience that might be: typically the best driving Rolls-Royce offered, now with instant performance and the dynamic benefits often associated with battery power. Not like adding a bit of extra weight will be a problem for a Rolls customer, either…

As you might expect, creating the first electric vehicle in the brand’s history is not the work of the moment. To that end, the Spectre’s on-road development programme has been devised as Rolls’ most demanding yet, covering 2.5m kilometres across the globe. For the average Rolls-Royce, that’s 400 years of driving. But with the company only happy now that the available battery tech suits the RR experience, there’s a need for certainty.

“Now is the time to change the course of the future of luxury” reads the Spectre press release in typically unabashed fashion. Given the significance of this announcement – and the fact that market launch isn’t all that off – we can surely expect plenty more from Rolls-Royce as the end of 2023 nears and its first electric production car gets closer.


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