Every so often the hapless automotive PR copywriter, desperately trying to find a hook to plug a new car, will come across something that causes them to shout ‘YESSS!!!’ and punch the air. When publicising the new Spectre, a quote by Rolls-Royce co-founder Charles Rolls in 1900 must have seemed like a lottery win: ‘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.’
It took more than a century for Rolls’ prophetic words to become reality – well, the last bit has almost happened – and for Rolls-Royce to debut an electric Phantom prototype, 102EX, at the Villa d’Este Concours in 2011. We featured it as a sidebar to an epic road trip in the then-current Ghost (Octane 99) and my co-driver Richard Heseltine wrote: ‘This is only a testbed; it foretells what the hyper-luxury car might be like in a few decades time. Consider us intrigued.’
Well, we need be intrigued no longer, because that time has arrived a lot sooner than Richard predicted. The Spectre is indeed a hyper-luxury electric car: the world’s first, says Rolls-Royce. It’s a massive, near-three-tonne two-door coupé, similar in concept to the previous Wraith but brand new in every respect.
Chances are your first thought will be: how far can it go on a single charge? A Rolls pro driver told me that they were getting well over 300 miles in the dry heat of California earlier in 2023; in the cold and wet of a British winter my own experience suggests a max of 230 miles, reduced to 185-190-ish if you follow the official guidance about only fast-charging to 80% capacity (to prolong battery life, and keep recharging time to the minimum).
Range and charging reservations aside, the Spectre is a truly lovely thing.
For a car of this size and luxury, that’s impressive in a way. Yet Royces are perfectly suited to long journeys; I once did over 1100 miles in a single day, co-driving a Phantom Coupé with colleague Glen Waddington back from the South of France (Octane 158, this time). Frequent stops would be frustrating. Even at a rapid charger, it can take the best part of an hour to get to that magic 80%.
Range anxiety aside, it’s impossible not to love this car. Indeed, the love seems to extend to the public at large; the reception from passers-by when parked was universally favourable. Rolls-Royces attract admiration, not envy: while I was charging the Spectre outside a McDonald’s in Mansfield, Notts (the glamour!), a yoof in a blinged-up hatchback pulled up to compliment me. ‘Beautiful car, mate. What you do for a livin’, then?’
The Spectre is pitched very much as a driver’s car – Rolls likes to talk about the relative youthfulness of its customer base – and it is a surprisingly wieldy tool on a twisty road, despite its substantial girth (it’s 2.14m wide over the mirrors, which is more than seven feet). Its all-wheel steering is a real benefit here, and especially on a tight roundabout. There’s drive to all four wheels, too, courtesy of front and rear electric motors. Combined power output is 430kW – equivalent to 584bhp – with the rear motor contributing nearly two-thirds of that. Interestingly, the previous Wraith produced 624bhp from its twin-turbo V12, and weighed 600kg less, but that’s the price we’re paying for a greener future.
What’s most outstanding is the Spectre’s ride quality. It sits on massive 23in alloys and yet it has an incredible ability to smooth out all but the harshest of potholes. Most of the time you’re aware of no more than a faint tremble from the air suspension as this huge machine simply irons out the scabbiest patchwork of road surfaces; the anti-roll bars decouple one side from the other when encountering asymmetric bumps on straight roads so that each wheel becomes truly independent. Very, very rarely is there a ‘thunk’ at lower speeds, and you can guarantee that it signifies the kind of road defect that would have the drivers of lesser cars dialling the local tyre depot afterwards.
Inside everything is as lovely as you’d expect, with – praise the Lord! – beautifully crafted physical controls for key functions such as heating and ventilation, while the famous Starlight Roof, featuring hundreds of fibre-optic ‘stars’ in the headlining, still has the wow-factor guaranteed to make first-time viewers’ jaws drop. There’s decent space for rear-seat passengers, but my 6ft 3in brother and his 6ft 4in eldest son both complained about the semi-reclined position of those rear seats, which they found uncomfortable on long journeys. No such gripes up front, where you have more seating controls to play with.
Most of the techy stuff is controlled by the latest version of BMW’s iDrive rotary knob, which is pretty intuitive to use. Those massive rear-hinged doors swing shut electrically, and the driver can close theirs by keeping a foot on the brake pedal, leaving hands free to sort out seatbelt and so on. Thank heavens for Google because – inevitably – there’s no physical handbook now. Would producing one really be such an eco-crime in the context of a 2.9-tonne hyper-luxury car? Come on, RR, buck the trend and issue a handbook that’s a work of art in its own right. A car that costs the thick end of £400,000 by the time you’ve specced it up a bit deserves this kind of added value.
Range and charging reservations aside, the Spectre is a truly lovely thing. As I’ve said before in this magazine, there are two types of vehicle that really suit electric power: off-roaders – and Rolls-Royces.
