Every Rolls-Royce is supposed to be three things: exclusive, luxurious, and superlative. There’s no reason why this can’t be achieved with an electric car and the brand’s first EV, the $413,000 Rolls-Royce Spectre is certainly all of those things. It also looks kind of boring.
Rolls-Royce calls this an “Ultra-Luxury Electric Super Coupé” and fits the role played by the Phantom Coupé, which explains why it looks exactly like a Phantom Coupé. The great success of Rolls-Royce has been due in large part to making exceptional cars that still feel very much like the cars they are supposed to be.
Perhaps it’s the misfortune of debuting next to the stunning and wild Cadillac Celistiq, but the weight of tradition bears down so overwhelmingly on the Spectre that we’ve ended up with a car that I am sure is phenomenal and also doesn’t move me (though I am not the intended audience and based upon the interior colors I’m assuming the first car was purchased for the rich baron Lord Ronald McDonald).
“The Most Perfect Product That Rolls-Royce Has Ever Produced”
That subhead is a direct quote from Rolls-Royce CEO Torsten Müller-Ötvös and he’s probably correct. The modern EV can be a car but, often, it’s a product. A device. A toy. This is fine! A Miata is a tiny-corner-tossy-roadster toy. The Spectre is a giant luxo-barge-y-coupe-y-yachty toy. Both can act as cars, but that’s less the point.
Rolls-Royce refers to the car’s “indulgent proportions” and they ain’t lying. Let’s compare this to the most obviously similar EV, the Ford F-150 Lightning.
The Spectre is heavier (6,559 pounds vs 6,015 pounds) and wider (82 inches versus 80 inches). It’s shorter, but it’s also a coupe and doesn’t have a bed.
Rolls-Royce has not revealed the motor location or even how big the battery is, which is curious, but some combination of battery and motors provide 664 lb-ft of torque and 577 horsepower and an estimated range of 320 miles on the WLTP test, which is probably around 260-270 miles of range using the EPA scale. None of those numbers are that great, are they? Even the BMW iX M60 has more range (280 miles) and more power (610 hp).
The Interesting Bits
It’s still a Rolls-Royce (he keeps telling himself) so the small details are big details. It has the widest grille ever put on a Rolls-Royce and I’ll let them explain how that works:
From the front, Spectre’s split headlight treatment is intersected by the widest grille ever bestowed on a Rolls-Royce. The vanes of the Pantheon grille are now smoother in section and a flusher fit, designed to help guide the air around the motor car’s front.
The relaxed angle and polished stainless steel finish of the grille does much to enhance Spectre’s presence using environmental reflection. Along with an aero-tuned Spirit of Ecstasy figurine – itself the product of 830 combined hours of design modelling and wind tunnel testing – the grille enhances the motor car’s unprecedented drag coefficient, which at just 0.25cd makes Spectre Rolls-Royce’s most aerodynamic motor car, ever.
Oh yeah, that’s right, they redesigned the Spirit of Ecstasy (the tiny person mounted to the top of the grille) to make it slightly less ecstatic and more aerodynamic. The grille is also back-lit by 22 LEDs.
If you like lights, by the way, Rolls-Royce does this thing where they put little stars everywhere. Usually, those stars are reserved for the headliner, but the Spectre’s doors have 4,796 “softly illuminated stars.” You know that bit in “Silicon Valley” where the annoying investor complains that he wants doors that “open like this” and not “billionaire doors” that open in an interesting way? That’s what this car is.
Your rich, trust-fundy heir friend shows up in her Phantom after tossing soup on a Van Gogh or whatever and the Phantom has a series of constellations on the roof and then you open the doors to your Spectre and go “Sorry, suckah, I got the Milky Way on the freakin’ doors” and then your friend laughs and you laugh because nothing really matters when you have a safety net below you made of webbed titanium.
Some other little details? There’s a “Planar” suspension that was tuned along the French Riviera because that’s where this thing will be driven. In order to enhance the car’s “magic carpet ride” it now includes automatically disconnect-able sway bars! Not for off-roading, of course, but for when one side of the car experiences an undulation.
Rolls-Royce didn’t reveal a price for all this, but ABC News says it’s $413,000, which sounds about right. I’m sure your local Rolls-Royce dealer will take your order now, but delivery isn’t until Q4 2023 so you’ll just have to drive one of your many other cars until then.
I’m probably being too harsh on this car. I bet it’s lovely to drive. I’ve driven a couple of Rolls’ cars and all the feelings one has when contemplating it (“Maybe these people should be the first against the wall”) kind of evaporate and are replaced by other feelings (“Maybe I do pay too many taxes…”).
An electric powertrain, of course, perfectly suits Rolls-Royce, and this should be the quietest and most comfortable car they’ve ever built, if you’re into that sort of thing.
Well, at least they included ketchup and mustard as condiments when we eat the rich.
I plan to marinate my rich in small batch artisanal balsamic and serve them with one of those really old bottles of red wine, for irony’s sake.
The Chianti is for drinking, though. Don’t forget the fava beans.
Damn I miss Fancy Kristen!
You really think FK is going to roll around in some mass produced car like the plebes?
*monocle hits floor*
Pardon me, do you have any grey poupon?
Oh wait you seem to have spilled it all over the seats.
I thought it looked okay in pictures, watched the reveal videos and my mind has been completely changed. Terribly ugly and way bigger than it looks
4,796 softly illuminated stars. I hope Rolls included the equivalent of a flashing check engine light, and a loud buzzer that goes off incessantly every time a single one of those stars fails to illuminate. And only the dealer can reset it.
Was the exterior design inspired by the Camargue?
Hey nice copy but you left out a few important facts;
Can I still run over the riffraff without spilling my Dom? Can I get the yellow in Grey Poipon and not French’s yellow? When the commoners look at this car does it sap their spirits as they realize I am so much better than they? Don’t forget the important things.
IMHO Rolls’ have looked pretty boring for a couple decades now.
I do hope they go back to referring to the power output, and maybe range now too, as “adequate”. This kind of coin deserves that kind of arrogance.
The new spirit of ecstasy looks like the T-1000 reforming itself after melding with the floor.
Does this look dystopian to anyone else? Like it’s specifically designed to be driven through cyber-slums under armed corporate escort?
Now I need to know how many dead corporate escorts will fit in the trunk.
If this thing is over 80 inches wide, does that mean we’re going to see some clearance lights??
This would’ve been impressive in 2010 or even 2015. Cadillac seems to have settled on range with “only” 300 miles for the Celestiq while Rolls isn’t substantially topping GM’s *cheapest* electric car at 260ish miles (ignoring the Whopping Liars and Towing Partners numbers). Styling is from the electrify-a-gas-car era.
I’m usually a huge Rolls fan. But there are things about this that leave me completely cold.
This one’s for “Lord McDonald”. Genius because it’s true. You can’t get much more plebeian than mustard yellow and ketchup red on white bread white. And what’s with the non-matching black seat belts back there? Did they run out of money, or what? They could’ve used hamburger brown to complete the theme…
The lack of commitment at the rear is also a problem. Either box the back and have a proper trunk, or go full boat-tail. This looks like a “meh” spot in between. Where KIA lives.
The headlights are also a low point for me. A Rolls should have enormous headlights with enormous lenses and reflectors, ready to drench the filthy heathen underlings ahead with a flood of cleansing photons. A Rolls should be capable of illuminating the peasants so thoroughly that even the most ruddy-skinned laborer looks like a Nordic ghost.
Also, the interior shot looks nearly impossible when compared directly to the exterior shots. The rear seats appear to be right next to the door, for easy entry and exit. But take a look at the cut lines on the side panel in the exterior shots. They aren’t nearly rearward enough to allow access to the rear seats. It makes me wonder: Is this car bending the rules of physics? Is that the real luxury being sold here? (What’s really going on is that the back seats are further back than expected, and will be very difficult to get in and out of in a dignified manner.)
I’ve been eagerly awaiting an electric Rolls to be jealous of, so this really is a colossal disappointment. Even in tasteful colors, this isn’t one I’ll ever aspire to own.
Your headlight paragraph is art.
I know this is a subjective thing, but that interior color scheme is a no go for me. Ocher with red and white? Ewww.
That interior! My eyes! My eyes!
My guess is that this one has been bought by McDonald’s advertising department and will be a prize for one lucky purchaser of an adult happy meal.
Looks like a 400,000 dollar vehicle that happens to have electric propulsion.
The Cadtiq looks like a prop from blade runner 1959.
I happen to enjoy Blade Runner
I’m just imagining a bunch of rich wankers sitting around bragging about whose grille is bigger than whose, and then Biff rolls up in this thing.
The people who buy this are not driving themselves.
Nothing really matters, anyone can see. Nothing really matters to me.
I can’t afford one either. I’m just a poor boy from a poor family.
Spare us this life from this monstrosity.
I don’t think people who want a chauffeured RR are buying a Coupe.
They may still not drive it much, but they’re doing the driving.
Looking at the side profile from lead photo, I thought this was a new Chevy Malibu coupe.
So if it wasn’t styled by a 12 year old it looks dull?
If any car should be electric, it is a Rolls-Royce. Sufficient power is all that is needed, the rest is craftsmanship. Hopefully the electric platform will simplify creating bespoke coachwork as well.
Yeah but the Brits and electronics have never gotten along.
is the battery pack management made by Lucas?
FWIW, a 1968 Buick Riveria is surprisingly affordable.
This is somewhat bland, but looks 100x better than the oddly proportioned and awkward Cadillac.
So is this, “post-opulence” or not?
Who’s going to buy the Cadillac when this is only $100k more.
Someone with better taste?
This looks similar to the Cadillac Celestiq (https://www.cadillac.com/electric/celestiq) or the Cadillac looks similar to the Rolls.