Rolls-Royce has announced its first fully electric car, the Spectre.
The luxury British car manufacturer expects the Spectre to come to market at the back end of 2024 and is promising that all of its cars will be fully electric by 2030.
The ominously named Spectre needn’t have Rolls’ well-heeled customers worried, however, as the car is set to undergo 2.5 million kilometres of testing – equivalent to 400 years of use, apparently.
“Today is the most significant day in the history of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars,” declares Torsten Müller-Ötvös, Rolls’ CEO. “I am proud to announce that Rolls-Royce is to begin the on-road testing programme for an extraordinary new product that will elevate the global all-electric car revolution and create the first – and finest – super-luxury product of its type.”
“This is not a prototype. It’s the real thing, it will be tested in plain sight and our clients will take first deliveries of the car in the fourth quarter of 2023.”
Of course, electrification would suit a brand such as Rolls-Royce. The near-silent operation of EVs should help insulate its drivers (or, more likely, passengers) from the noise of the outside world even further.
Range, however, might prove to be a thornier issue. Having to wait around while your chauffeur rechargers your Spectre at a charging station with the hoi polloi doesn’t seem quite like the lap of luxury.
But, given the high-end automaker’s close relationship with BMW, there might be some fast-charging tech in the works.
As Rolls-Royce aficionados might already have noted, Spectre is a new name for the firm’s cars and, according to Müller-Ötvös, it’s for the best.
“This name perfectly matches the extraordinary Rolls-Royce that we are announcing today – a motor car that makes its presence felt before disappearing into a world inaccessible to all but the very few,” says Müller-Ötvös.
However, the Spectre is just the start of a broader plan for Rolls.
“With this new product we set out our credentials for the full electrification of our entire product portfolio by 2030,” Müller-Ötvös continues. “By then, Rolls-Royce will no longer be in the business of producing or selling any internal combustion engine products.”
But, aside from some cryptic images of the Spectre, there is precious little solid information from Rolls-Royce about their first electric endeavour. Fitting, perhaps, given the name.
