First Rolls-Royce Spectre details emerge

Rolls-Royce has started detailing some of the technical aspects of its upcoming 2023 Rolls-Royce Spectre electric coupe as it wraps up winter testing near the Arctic Circle.

The British super-luxury brand says the reveal and eventual release of the Spectre will mark the arrival of the ‘Rolls-Royce 3.0’ era, representing the “integration of a fully electric powertrain and decentralised intelligence into the marque’s architecture”.

Riding on an adapted version the historic car-maker’s existing all-aluminium spaceframe architecture, the Spectre will be the first Rolls-Royce coupe to ride on 23-inch wheels as standard since 1926.

The Rolls-Royce Spectre will feature a floor that sits flush with the centre of the sills to allow for more efficient and practical packaging of the battery.

By doing this, engineers have created a perfectly flat and thereby aerodynamic undercarriage but also integrated the battery and all of its relevant hardware into the car’s elaborate sound-proofing architecture.

Designed as a spiritual successor to the Rolls-Royce Phantom Coupe, the Spectre will cast a similar sized shadow as its ‘super coupe’ forbear and even retain its familiar split headlight design.

In its latest Spectre teaser, Rolls speaks a lot about emotion and the emotionality of the electric coupe’s design, from the aforementioned headlights to its steeply raked windscreen, redesigned Spirit of Ecstasy mascot, proportions and fastback roofline.

Given the car is yet to be officially revealed there’s no official drag coefficient yet, but the brand says early prototypes had a drag coefficient of just 0.26Cd.

Thanks to the lack of an internal combustion engine, designers and engineers were able to alter the position of the bulkhead and free up more interior room, something primarily reflected by the deeper and cocooning dashboard.

Once inside the cabin, occupants will be presented with a new level of connectivity and technological advancement, so much so that the Spectre will be the most connected Rolls-Royce to date with 141,200 sender-receiver relations capable of more than 1000 functions and more than 25,000 sub-functions.

For reference, the current Rolls-Royce Phantom has 51,000 sender-receiver relations, 456 functions and 647 sub-functions.

Handling all of this technology is 7km worth of cable in every vehicle – up from 2km in the Phantom – and 25 times more algorithms needing to be written.

“Spectre is unquestionably the most anticipated product in the marque’s modern history,” said Rolls-Royce Motor Cars chief executive officer Torsten Müller-Ötvös.

“This is because it is much more than a product. It is a symbol for our bright, bold electric future, and it represents a seismic shift in our powertrain technology.

“The extraordinary undertaking of educating Spectre to think and behave like a Rolls-Royce will cover 2.5 million kilometres, which is a simulation of more than 400 years of use for a Rolls-Royce.”

The company added that the Spectre still had around two million kilometres to go “before the marque’s engineers will consider this undertaking complete prior to first customer deliveries in the fourth quarter of 2023”.

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