Rolls-Royce Spectre Goes Through Extreme Hot Weather Testing In South Africa
The two-door all-electric Rolls-Royce Spectre is one of the most luxurious EVs out there, featuring about 1,500 pounds of sound deadening for a truly serene, sound-free experience. But even though the order books are open for an eye-watering starting price of around $400,000, it’s not exactly ready for prime time, with some 300,000 miles of testing ahead of it.
In an effort to show the great lengths it goes to for an almost-perfect experience, Rolls-Royce published a photo gallery (embedded below) showing the Spectre going through its extreme hot weather testing phase in South Africa, where temperatures can reach up to 122 degrees Fahrenheit (50 degrees Celsius).
As per the British luxury carmaker, the Spectre has already gone through 1.2 million miles (2 million kilometers) of on-road testing, applying the Marginal gains theory, in which individual, very small, and incremental adjustments cumulatively produce a significant overall improvement.
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During the extreme hot weather testing phase, engineers are observing every system, hardware item, and software protocol, so that the brand’s technical experts “achieve the exacting levels of ride refinement that are so central to the experience beloved by clients, and successfully translate the marque’s defining Magic Carpet Ride to the new all-electric paradigm,” according to the press release.
Rolls-Royce says that until now, over 1,500 hours have been devoted to finessing the car’s regenerative braking system so that it feels “effortless but present.” In other words, it’s safe to say that the British marque is taking great pride in its development work and that the finished product should come out as one of the most refined vehicles in the world.
As a reminder, the Rolls-Royce Spectre was revealed in October 2022 as the brand’s first-ever all-electric production model, with deliveries scheduled to begin before the end of 2023.
Slotting somewhere in between the Phantom and Cullinan in terms of price, the two-door Spectre has a maximum estimated range of around 260 miles from a battery that has a yet-to-be-disclosed capacity, 577 horsepower and 664 pound-feet (900 Newton-meters) of torque, and a top speed of 155 mph (250 km/h).
