Rolls-Royce’s first fully electric vehicle, Spectre, is one of the most highly anticipated EVs of the year, not to mention THE MOST anticipated Rolls Royce in the luxury brand’s 118-year history.
Before its release later this year, the Rolls-Royce Spectre has covered over 2.5 million kilometers (about 1.2 million miles) as it finishes up testing.
Rolls-Royce is known for its elegant-looking vehicles that can turn heads on any city block. However, the British luxury automaker is entering a “bold new chapter” after unveiling its first fully electric vehicle, the Rolls-Royce Spectre.
Dating back to 1900, Rolls-Royce’s founder, Charles Royce, proclaimed, “the electric car is perfectly noiseless and clean. There is no smell or vibration, and they should become very useful when fixed charging stations can be arranged.”
Well, fixed charging stations are rolling out in abundance thanks to the NEVI program’s $5 billion in funding to create a national network of EV chargers and many other public and private initiatives.
Mr. Royce could see where the auto industry was headed over 100 years ago. It just took longer than it should have with lobbying and campaigns against fully electric vehicles.
After promising to deliver a 100% electric vehicle by the end of the decade, Rolls-Royce followed through, officially releasing the Spectre in October 2022.
Rolls-Royce Motor Cars CEO, Torsten Müller-Ötvös, explains:
Spectre has already secured its place as the most anticipated Rolls-Royce in history. This remarkable and transformative motor car represents the beginning of the marque’s bold electric era as well as our unquestionable technological leadership of the super-luxury space.
Müller-Ötvös added the Spectre is undergoing various testing ahead of its release later this year to ensure its first EV can carry the brand into a new era.
Rolls-Royce Spectre passes critical tests ahead of its release
The Rolls-Royce Spectre has covered almost two million kilometers (about 1.2 million miles) as it wraps up the “most rigorous testing program” ever developed during the brand’s 118-year history – and it’s still ongoing.
Dr. Mihiar Ayoubi, director of engineering at Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, explains:
The reason for our extraordinary and restless global testing process is simple: there has never been a motor car like Spectre before. As the first all-electric Rolls-Royce, Spectre represents not just a new paradigm in our technology, but the entire future direction of our brand.
The Spectre is in South Africa undergoing extreme heat tests at two different locations, with dry conditions in the north and more humid conditions in the south.
In the north, temperatures can exceed 122 degrees Fahrenheit (122 degrees Celsius), while the south offers various terrains, including twisty country roads filled with gravel, dust, and dirt.
During the program, Rolls-Royce engineers inspect every aspect of the Spectre to ensure it can achieve the exact levels of refinement to give that “magic carpet ride” customers are seeking.
The luxury brand is looking for “marginal gains,” like athletes and high-level business people, to produce a significant improvement over time, a similar concept to compounding.
After testing in South Africa is finished, Rolls-Royce says the Spectre’s testing program will be about 80% complete as it heads to its final testing phase before its release. The first Rolls-Royce EV deliveries are planned for the fourth quarter of 2023.
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