Rolls-Royce EV Electric Spectre Coupe due in 2023
Rolls-Royce announces 2023 EV. Spectre coupé to have Ghost platform and unique-to-Rolls mechanical make-up.
Rolls-Royce will launch its first series-production electric car in late 2023 and has pledged to phase out internal combustion across its entire model range by 2030.
The first product to emerge from this rapid-fire electrification strategy will be the all-new Spectre, which has been previewed ahead of the “imminent” start of what will be a highly publicised on-road development programme.
Resembling the retiring Wraith coupé, the development prototype is adorned with one of the best-known quotes from company co-founder Sir Henry Royce: “Strive for perfection in everything you do. Take the best that exists and make it better. When it does not exist, design it.” This is most likely a nod to the Spectre’s bespoke mechanical make-up, which Rolls-Royce claims is “free of any group sharing strategy”.
Rather than using the Cluster Architecture (CLAR) platform that underpins parent company BMW’s new i4 and iX EVs, Goodwood is sticking with the recently introduced Architecture of Luxury, a modular aluminium spaceframe that will eventually underpin every one of its cars.
CEO Torsten Müller-Ötvös explained that the platform is “scalable and flexible”, allowing for its use in various market segments, and “was created to form the foundation of not just different ICE models, as it now does with the Cullinan and the Ghost, but also models with completely different powertrains”.
He said the platform – which brought significant improvements in terms of weight, refinement and rigidity to the Phantom – was developed from the outset to accommodate a battery-electric powertrain in addition to the BMW-developed V12 that Rolls-Royce has used in various iterations since 1998.
Details on what exactly will power the Spectre, however, remain under wraps, and when pressed by Autocar, Müller-Ötvös said only: “We would never use an existing car from the BMW Group and convert it into a Rolls-Royce. That doesn’t work for us.”
However, it stands to reason that the 600bhp-plus dual-motor set-up in the upcoming iX M60 could find its way into the luxury brand’s models, as it roughly matches the output of the twin-turbocharged 6.6-litre V12.
As for the design of the final product, Müller-Ötvös suggested that prototypes will give further clues when they hit public roads in the coming weeks but “what you basically see is what you will later get”.
Most of the defining features of the pictured test car are camouflaged, but Müller-Ötvös confirmed that it will take its “fastback-oriented” design into production, which means it will initially sit unrivalled as an electric luxury coupé.
A series of test cars will be built for the two-year testing programme and will cover more than 150 million miles, which equates to 400 years of use, according to Rolls-Royce.
The start of the Spectre’s road test regime comes just over a decade since Rolls- Royce showed the Phantom-based 102EX experimental concept, with a 384bhp dual-motor powertrain and a 71kWh battery pack providing a claimed 120-mile range.
The far more radical 103EX arrived in 2016 with nearly double that output and clues as to how the company would adapt its traditional design cues to suit electric cars.
We would never convert an existing car from the BMW Group into a Rolls-Royce. That doesn’t work for us
Electric Spectre will replace retiring Wraith as Rolls’ coupé