Rolls-Royce has long seemed to be a brand waiting for electrification, something the company has been dropping increasingly broad hints about for more than a decade. The company has released some more details about what will become the first fully electric Rolls-Royce production car. The Spectre will be on sale by the end of 2023, and although Rolls-Royce has only released these few images of a slogan-strewn prototype, this makes clear that the car in question is a coupe with what appears to be rear-hinged doors. It showed an EV concept based on the previous-generation Phantom—named the 102EX—at the Geneva auto show in 2011, and a much more radical, spat-wearing 103EX five years later. More recently, it said its entire portfolio will be fully electric by 2030.
This Rolls-Royce is the fulfilment of a promise kept as they embark upon a unique undertaking. It is the beginning of a new legacy for brand. In that spirit, the company have decided on a completely new name for this car. A name that is as powerful and evocative as the nameplates that have served us so perfectly for the past century – names like Phantom, Ghost and Wraith. It’s a name that perfectly fits the ethereal and other-worldly environment within which our products exist – a name that we have reserved especially for this moment: Spectre. Spectre is a name given to otherworldly beings synonymous with great power and apparition; creatures of an alternative realm that make their presence felt through fleeting manifestation. A spectre forces the world to pause.
The Rolls-Royce Spectre will sit on the modular Architecture of Luxury aluminum platform that underpins the Phantom, Cullinan, and Ghost. No details have been released about the future car’s powertrain. Rolls-Royce has previously confirmed to us that any electric Rolls would need to offer at least the same level as performance as that provided by the company’s existing V-12–powered models. These are famed for their refinement and wafty manners but are impressively potent when unleashed; the company claims a 4.3-second zero-to-60-mph time for the current Ghost. The 102EX used a 71.0-kWh battery pack and a pair of electric motors that delivered a combined 389 horsepower to the rear axle, but the production Spectre to be considerably more potent.
