Rolls-Royce announces its first electric model, the Specter, for 2023. By 2030, the prestigious English manufacturer, which today only offers V12s, will no longer offer any combustion engine vehicle.
After years of rumors and then the official announcement of an electric Rolls-Royce during the current decade, the British manufacturer is finally unveiling its precise plans for electrification. No room for half measures at Rolls-Royce. Bypassing the hybrid, the Goodwood brand will become 100% electric by 2030. The firm’s first “zero-emission” model will be called Specter and will be marketed in two years.
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The Specter walks silently
The Specter is already showing, camouflaged, on a handful of official pictures. If the details of its design remain hidden, we discover a coupe whose allure is in line with the Rolls-Royce of the XXIe century. Its proportions are therefore those of a front-engine GT.
This style allows the manufacturer to make the big difference between the electrification revolution and the conservatism expected by a large part of its customers. The Specter will probably replace the Wraith, in the catalog since 2013. It will be based on the modular chassis of the latest Phantom and Ghost, an architecture specific to Rolls-Royce that no other brand in the BMW group uses. Other than that, no technical details were revealed. The Specter will be the subject of the largest development program in Rolls-Royce history according to the brand, including 2.5 million kilometers of testing around the world.
Is the ideal Rolls-Royce electric?
The links between Rolls-Royce and the electric car are not new, which the manufacturer obviously takes care to emphasize to accompany its announcements of the day. He reminds us that even before the founding of Rolls-Royce in 1904, at the beginning of the automobile, therefore, Henry Royce designed electric motors which he sold to Pritchett & Gold, a London-based battery manufacturer that had started producing cars. Charles Rolls was driving a “zero emission” Columbia Electric Carriage as early as 1898. He then spoke of the electric car in these terms: “ Electric cars are perfectly quiet and clean. There is no smell or vibration, and they could become very useful when (charging) stations can be installed. But right now, I don’t see them being very practical, at least for many years to come. “
In 2011, Rolls-Royce presented the prototype 102EX electric Phantom, approved for the road. Then in 2016, the 103EX concept, also electric and much more futuristic, was unveiled. The silent operation and instantaneous torque offered by electric vehicles correspond to the philosophy of Rolls-Royce. But the abandonment of the thermal remains a bet dictated by the tightening of the regulations whereas the constraints of autonomy which Charles Rolls underlined more than a century ago are not yet behind us. The first Rolls-Royce Specters are due for delivery in the fourth quarter of 2023.
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