It’s Here: First Ever Electric Rolls-Royce

It’s been a long time coming, but the new electric Rolls-Royce brings the smooth, quiet powerplant ever put into a Roller!

It feels like we’ve been writing about a pure electric Rolls-Royce since the dawn of the modern age of EVs, circa 2008/09. Back then, we talked about the smoothness and silence of electric motors being a perfect fit for the ultimate luxury car brand, so to see this car — the first ever production BEV Rolls — is more than a bit surreal.

It seems that the company feels that way, too. We say that because they’re calling this new car the Silver Spectre. It’s a haunted car, really — if you could ever call a Rolls-Royce something so vulgar as a “car.”

This isn’t a car, then. It’s something special. Indeed, the Spectre is something new, even if it carries with it the spirit of the old Silver Ghost with it. “This is the start of a bold new chapter for our marque, our extraordinary clients and the luxury industry” says Torsten Müller-Ötvös, the over-Germanicly named CEO of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars. “For this reason, I believe Spectre is the most perfect product that Rolls-Royce has ever produced.”

Perfect might be a bit of a stretch for scholars of the marque — but even the most ardent of Henry Royce’s admirers will admit that this new EV is one of the most luxurious car ever built. Just look at that “Starlight” headliner …

Rolls-Royce Spectre “Starlight” Doors + Headliner

… for the first time on a series production Rolls-Royce, Spectre is available with Starlight Doors, which the company says incorporate 4,796 softly illuminated LED “stars” against a backdrop of wood Canadel Panelling, which takes its name from the cove in the South of France where Sir Henry Royce and his design team spent their winters. The fascia and headliner, too, have thousands of individual stars worked into them. The effect is ethereal.

There’s more going in the new Rolls than opulence for opulence’s sake, though. Parent company BMW has stuffed the Spectre with all of its latest high-tech gizmos. “With Spectre, Rolls-Royce has harnessed a revolutionary ‘Decentralised Intelligence’ system that allows for the free and direct exchange of information between more than 1,000 vehicle functions,” reads the official press release. “(Further) elevating the marque’s celebrated quality of ride. Its designers have captured a contemporary yet timeless aesthetic that significantly progresses the brand’s iconography as it embarks on its electric age. Its craftspeople have created a suite of contemporary prêt-à-porter personalization possibilities, including Starlight Doors and Illuminated Fascia, inspiring clients to realize their own Bespoke visions.”

Other intelligent features involve a road-mapping active suspension system that reads the road ahead and adapts itself for maximum interior leveling and comfort. It’s conceptually similar to the active suspension in the all-conquering Williams FW14B Formula 1 car that dominated the 1992 season — but, you know, digital.

Rolls-Royce doesn’t trumpet anything as trivial as horsepower or torque figures, of course (that kind of thing is for the poors), but suffice it to say that there’s enough power on tap to launch the battleship-bodied Spectre from 0-60 MPH in just over 4 seconds.

You can check out the Spectre for yourself in this huge photo gallery, below, then let us know what you think of this plush cruiser in the comments section at the bottom of the page.

Spectre Photo Gallery

SOURCE | IMAGES: ROLLS-ROYCE.

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