Rolls-Royce’s electric reign begins with the ultra-luxe ‘Spectre’

Running purely electric by 2030, Rolls-Royce debuts the 2023 Spectre, their first all-electric ultra-luxury coupe featuring the widest grille in RR history. Here’s all about it.

During this festive season in India, there’s one sparkle that really caught our eye – The 2023 Rolls-Royce Spectre. This massive, maximalist yet conscious chariot of pure opulence is the spiritual successor to the Phantom coupe and their very first electric car in 116 years of luxury automaking. However, this isn’t exactly true. In 1900, before Charles Stewart Rolls came to build gasoline-running luxury cruisers, he created an electric car. Predicting this inevitable electric future, he said “The electric car is perfectly noiseless and clean. There is no smell or vibration. They should become very useful when fixed charging stations can be arranged”. Well, a little more than a century and a quarter later (2030), his company dedicatedly sells nothing but electric-powered motorcars. But while we’re still in 2022, this journey takes to fruition with the Spectre, an 18-foot-long, dual-motor luxuriant that truly embraces the beauty of perfected noiselessness and bows to no one. Here’s all about it.

In form, it’s a crisper take of the quintessential RR coupe, but in functionality, unlike any before. It stretches 18 feet long, and seven feet wide, 126-inch long wheelbase and weighs 6559 pounds. Sure, with all the electrification happening in silence, it’s also the most aerodynamic Rolls-Royce ever. Interestingly, to achieve this, RR didn’t even have to do much, it isn’t exceptionally smooth, downsized, or boasts a new silhouette. It’s just clean and classier. The signature Pantheon grille is wider than ever and now backlit, and this will be an accent for all electric Rollies.

Inside, the Rolls-Royce Spectre retains the Phantom coupe’s zenith-grade luxury but also comes with a growing list of options and bespoke feats including Starlight doors. Much like the cosmic-illuminating skyroof, the door too now features 4796 stars.

Finally, let’s talk about its biggest advancement, the power department. Considering previous RRs offered hefty V12s with their luxury motorcars, you may be expecting a beefy English electric motor and a jaw-dropping horsepower figure. However, RR has other plans for the Spectre. With sensibility and consciousness being key themes of the car, they’ve refrained from the rat race of chasing obnoxiously high horsepower figures and focused more on practicality. With the two motors producing a combined 577 horsepower and 664 pound-feet of torque, you can expect the Spectre to zoom from zero to 60 mph in 4.4 seconds. With 2.5 million test miles on the clock, it offers a top speed of a modest 155 mph and a range of 260 miles on a single charge.

With deliveries beginning next year, Rolls-Royce predicts Spectre base pricing will sit somewhere between the Cullinan ($351,250) and Phantom ($460,000). I’d say $400,000 should be an apt guess.

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All images: Courtesy Rolls-Royce