One of the world’s most prestigious car brands has finally announced plans to go electric after revealing the designs for a vehicle set for launch in 2023.
The Rolls-Royce Spectre will be the company’s first EV and is now set for extensive testing before being made available for sale.
“We will cover 2.5 million kilometres [1.6 million miles] – a simulation of more than four hundred years of use for a Rolls-Royce, on average – and we will travel to all four corners of the world to push this new motor car to the limit,” said company boss Müller-Ötvös at the announcement of the Spectre.
“You will see these test cars on roads, around the world. Look out for them – they will be in plain sight. They will be tested in all conditions and over all terrains on their multi-million-mile journey – that will literally accelerate Rolls-Royce into the future.”
The Spectre design unveiled this week has a look of the existing Wraith luxury coupe, and with its new name puts to bed many rumours that the EV range would be called Silent Shadow. There was nothing silent about the new car’s livery either, resplendent in a camouflage which included quotes from Rolls-Royce founder Charles Rolls, who spoke about his own EV way back in 1900, a Columbia electric car, of which he said: “The electric car is perfectly noiseless and clean. There is no smell or vibration, and they should become very useful when fixed charging stations can be arranged. But for now, I do not anticipate that they will be very serviceable – at least for many years to come.”