Something a little different this month. Instead of a classic car from our past, in this edition we take a look at something new from one of the automotive industry’s great names.

This is the Rolls-Royce Spectre, the first fully electric car from the venerable British luxury marque.

With a reputation of producing some of history’s very best cars, and with the intention of having its entire product portfolio be electric by 2030, Rolls-Royce has plenty riding on the Spectre, and the company has put in the hard yards into ensuring it meets its own high standards – the Spectre, it says, has been put through more than 2.5 million kilometres of testing. You’ve got to think all that effort will result in something of the finest quality and, on first impressions, the Spectre does not disappoint.

It looks spectacular for a start. The huge grille upfront stamps the Spectre as a Rolls-Royce, and the long front leading to an equally long fastback sloping rear gives the two-door, four-seat luxury coupe a very tasty and powerful-looking design. Those two doors are hinged at the back – ‘suicide’ doors – and deliver a bit of extra luxury flavour, as do the whopping 23-inch wheels.

The design looks tremendous, but there’s practicality to that design too – Rolls-Royce claims the aerodynamics of the Spectre are good enough to deliver a drag-coefficient of just 0.25, making it the most aerodynamic car the company has ever produced.

An all-aluminium spaceframe architecture has been tweaked to be 30 per cent stiffer on the Spectre than that found on its sibling Phantom, Ghost, and Cullinan models, with the battery pack integrated into the structure of the car.

Inside, you’d expect no less than the absolute best, and here the Spectre delivers too. Illuminated surfaces – including the famous star headliner – dot the interior and digital displays sit up front, but as with all top-end Rolls-Royce vehicles, the personalisation and bespoke options available to owners mean almost any combination of designs, fabrics, materials and colours are available.

Underneath whatever interior is chosen, however, lives the digital heart of the car, and that, Rolls-Royce says, means the Spectre is equipped with a completely redesigned digital architecture named SPIRIT, which manages the car’s functions and seamlessly integrates with the marque’s WHISPERS application enabling owners to interact with the car remotely. This digital architecture can also be tweaked to the whims of the customer with, for example, the colour of dials being able to complement the interior of the car.

The Spectre is fitted with the company’s Planar suspension system which, via the latest in hardware and software developments, is designed to respond to driver inputs and road conditions and deliver Rolls-Royce’s hallmark ‘magic carpet ride’. Leveraging the Spectre’s high-speed processing capabilities, the Planar system can decouple the car’s anti-roll bars allowing each wheel to act independently, preventing the rocking motion that occurs when one side of a vehicle hits an undulation in the road. This also reduces high-frequency ride imperfections caused by shortcomings in road surface quality.

Once a corner is identified as imminent, the Planar system recouples the components and stiffens the dampers. The four-wheel steering system is then prepared for activation to ensure effortless entry and exit. Under cornering, 18 sensors are monitored, and steering, braking, power delivery and suspension parameters are adjusted so that Spectre remains stable.

While details are yet to be fully revealed, Rolls-Royce says that Spectre will be loaded with driver assistance systems and other infotainment features, including an ‘intelligent companion’ called ‘Eleanor’ that can assist with tasks such as temperature adjustment or locating the nearest charging station.

Specifications of the powertrain are not yet confirmed, but the company says that the Spectre is expected to be good for a 520km range (WLTP testing), offer 430kW and 900Nm, and deliver a 0-100km/h time of 4.5 seconds – pretty good for a car weighing in at 2,975kg.

The Spectre is available for commission now, with Rolls-Royce saying deliveries will begin in Q4 2023. Pricing will, the company adds, slot in somewhere between the Cullinan and Phantom models, meaning you’ll have to be ready to stump up around $800,000 to own one.

Source: Motor Trader e-Magazine (November 2022) 

11 November 2022