Few brands will hit their pure electric targets as they need to convert hundreds of thousands of buyers to the idea that an EV perfectly replaces their current model. Rolls-Royce, however only needs to find a few thousand buyers, and the appeal of an all-electric Rolls-Royce is obvious. Claimed on their website, this is “the beginning of an era that will see the entire model portfolio electrified by 2030” and that the new Spectre is “setting a clear path toward the marque’s first all-electric decade.” Henry Royce and Charles Rolls set a goal to build the “best car in the world.” Famed automotive writer Ken Purdy wrote that “the Rolls is not only the best car the world has ever seen, it is very probably the best piston-engine car the world will ever see.” Blending a modern electric drivetrain with the elegance of a Rolls-Royce seems to create the car that Sir Royce would envision today, if he were still alive. There’s a limit to how smooth and powerful a piston engine can be. A modern BEV has advantages over the V12 engine with its inherent smoothness and its quiet delivery of all that power. Up from the 563hp from the twin-turbocharged engine, the Spectre produces 430kW of electric power, or about 577hp. As emissions tighten around Rolls-Royce’s big cars, BEVs will be necessary. The 5,400-lb Wraith coupe consumes a gallon of gas for every 12 miles of city driving while polluting 624 g of CO2 every mile and needs to be refueled every 263 miles. Based on the WLTP test cycle, the 6,600-lb Spectre, with its 0 g/mi of CO2 tailpipe emissions, can travel up to 323 miles on a single charge. Two motors, one on each axle, allow the permanent all-wheel drive system to move more than three tons of car from zero to 100 km/h in 4.4 seconds. With a base price somewhere north of US$400,000, the Spectre is just the start of the next era for Rolls-Royce.
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