Jonathan Gitlin
A totally electrical Rolls-Royce has been some years within the making. Back in 1900, Charles Stewart Rolls proclaimed the electrical motor’s suitability for vehicles—silent, easy, and exhaust-free are all nice attributes for a luxurious automobile. Back then, the issue was an absence of charging stations, one thing that seems to be enhancing 123 years later. That means the world is now prepared for the Spectre.
As you would possibly count on of a automobile carrying the pantheon grille and Spirit of Ecstasy mascot—subtly redesigned right here for improved aerodynamic effectivity—there’s little shy or retiring in regards to the Spectre, significantly when it is a vivid purple, as was the case for our check automobile.
Jonathan Gitlin
It’s a two-door, four-seat coupe, and large one, too: 215.6 inches (5,475 mm) lengthy, 79.4 inches (2,017 mm) large, and 61.9 inches (1,573 mm) tall, with a curb weight of 6,371 lbs (2,890 kg). Despite that, the considerably Art Deco-inspired form cleaves the air with a drag coefficient of 0.25—the form spent greater than 800 hours being refined within the wind tunnel, which is about twice as a lot time as F1 vehicles are at the moment allowed.
Under the pores and skin, the Spectre makes use of Rolls-Royce’s Architecture of Luxury versatile platform, which employs solid and extruded aluminum to make a really stiff house body in virtually any dimensions the designers would possibly want. The structure was designed to be powertrain-agnostic, and the addition of a battery pack between the sills implies that the Spectre has by far the best torsional rigidity of any Rolls-Royce but, about 30 % larger than the Rolls-Royce Ghost.
For as a lot as Rolls-Royce has publicized one in every of its founders’ early phrases on the necessity for “mounted charging stations,” buyer suggestions confirmed Rolls-Royce that its clients overwhelmingly wish to cost at residence or the workplace, we have been advised throughout our pre-drive briefing.
Jonathan Gitlin
Little extra was stated in regards to the charging expertise for the Spectre. I needed to test that it really had a DC quick charging port—it does, utilizing CCS1—and 10–80 % state of cost ought to take 34 minutes at as much as 195 kW, in accordance with the press equipment. But let’s be fully clear right here: Rolls-Royce house owners do not actually do street journeys. 500-mile journeys are for helicopters or planes, and the house owners can choose up one in every of their different vehicles once they land.
The Spectre makes use of a twin-motor powertrain. The entrance axle motor supplies 255 hp (190 kW) and 270 lb-ft (365 Nm), the rear generates 483 hp (360 kW) and 524 lb-ft (710 Nm), with a mixed most output of 584 hp (430 kW) and 664 lb-ft (900 Nm). (If this appears complicated, it is as a result of the entire output of an EV is ruled by how a lot vitality the battery can output, not the sum of each motors.)
The motors are fed by a lithium-ion battery that lives between the axles. It has a gross capability of 120 kWh and a useable capability of 105 kWh, which needs to be adequate for an EPA vary of not less than 260 miles, in accordance with Rolls-Royce. That looks as if an affordable estimate; checking the journey pc confirmed that over a few thousand miles, our preproduction Spectre had averaged 2.5 miles/kWh (24.9 kWh/100 km), which is about what one would count on for a big, heavy EV—a Ford F-150 Lightning or Rivian R1S are in comparable dimension and weight lessons and return comparable effectivity.