Rolls-Royce Specter EV First Drive: Beautiful, understated, silent

A few years Charles Rolls documented the potential of electric propulsion before meeting his future business partner, Henry Royce. Yes, in 1900, electrification was very much on the cards, and half of the world’s pioneering automotive luxury brand was totally on board with the idea – until the oil business did its damnedest and led the way with the new engine. Industry to fuel.

To be clear, at that time lead acid batteries were very bulky and not particularly efficient, and Rolls had doubts about the necessary infrastructure. That remains a problem 120 years later, depending on where you are in the world, but it probably won’t bother the owner of the new Rolls-Royce Spectre. Because, as Rolls-Royce CEO Torsten Muller-Otvos told WIRED, the average Rolls customer has. seven Cars in the garage. In a life of luxury, being able to switch between a Ferrari, a Range Rover, or an electric Rolls-Royce is one of the most taxing decisions of the day. A car for every occasion, then.

The Specter has been a long time coming. The company It returned in 2011 with the BEV, but while the Phantom could once again provide proof of concept, it also had a negligible real-world range of 100-miles. In the year In 2016, a whole quota of genius pills resulted in the visually stunning, unusual 103 EX concept. It is now, says Müller-Otvos, the world of Rolls-Royce and electrification at last assembling. Specter is the result.

It’s a massive four-seat super-coupe that replaces the old Phantom Coupe (now an admirable asset) and the smaller Wraith. Rolls has successfully reduced the average age of its customers from 56 to 42 over the past decade. The growth in the technology sector and the popularity of the brand was aided by the leading lights of hip-hop. The Specter only accelerates that, as this is arguably the best-looking car the company has made since the company was bought by BMW in the late ’90s.

Quiet running

It is a gigantic figure standing 5 meters long and 2 meters wide in all respects. Behind the wheel, the super-yacht parallels are obvious: until you drive a Rolls-Royce from the cockpit and set a course past the little people. A degree of chutzpah is definitely required here.