What comes to mind when you think of Rolls-Royce? The ultimate pinnacle of four wheeled opulence… and filthy-rich, old men? Be honest, who else have you seen get out of one?
But things are changing. Globally, there’s been a significant shift toward youth embracing this car and let’s be real, similar to the ‘Welcome to Country’ ceremony, the old rich white man tolerance for electric vehicles is not exactly overflowing with enthusiasm.
What is a Rolls without it’s iconic V12 engine drinking unleaded petrol? It’s R-R 3.0, the manufacturers first electric car and the spiritual successor of the Phantom Coupe – enter the Spectre. A 435kW, four wheelin’ super sailing yacht, that glides through oceanic urban streets in silence. Interestingly, the design takes cues from modern racing yacht styling and the electric angle nails the magic carpet ride to a tee.
Apparently electric was always the future for R-R. In 1900, motoring pioneer The Hon Charles Stewart Rolls made a bold prediction: “The electric car is perfectly noiseless and clean. There is no smell or vibration. They should become very useful when fixed charging stations can be arranged,” It took over a century, but his vision is finally a reality. Without knowing this prophetic prediction, can you imagine if I’d told you 15 years ago, Rolls-Royce entire portfolio would be fully electric by 2030, no longer producing internal combustion engine products. You and your Grandpa would tell me to shut the front gate.
What does Spectre mean? If you ask James Bond, he’ll tell you it’s an acronym for Special Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion. If you ask Merriam-Webster Dictionary it’s defined as a visible disembodied spirit; Ghost or something that haunts or perturbs the mind; a Phantasm. Either way and depending on how your feeling on the day, it’s an appropriate wallop of drama and very on brand for Rolls-Royce generally creepy gothic tone when it comes to naming their beasts.
The engineering behind the Spectre is nothing short of extraordinary. The testing programme covered 2.5 million kilometres, simulating over 400 years of normal use in every extreme of terrain and temperature -40 in the Arctic Circle to 50+ degrees in South Africa. Sounds absurd but it breaks down to 173 kilometres each day. Oh to take one of these out in the Arctic Circle! How very ‘Lion, witch and the wardrobe’ but things would unravel quickly for a blonde, summer loving Aussie like myself, even with chains.
Only a very select group of media were invited to drive the Spectre earlier this year, primarily because there was only two cars. We set off in our dual multi-million dollar tiny fleet from a Sydney CBD hotel in a storm. Not something I’d recommend no matter how magic the carpet is. Taking into account that everyone forgets how to drive in the rain, the CBD is a nightmare on a sunny day, these cars are drop dead gorgeous, feel wider than most lanes and are worth about as much as two bedder in Melbourne’s Albert Park, we were glad to get moving!
Finally free of red lights, awkwardly turning buses, tradies and taxis, like oversized very good looking silent ninja’s, we floated away from the city to some greener, more magical pastures.
I was paired for the day with a fascinating character who runs her own agency of Chinese influencers. She explained that this style of car are what the young, wealthy pups of China are interested in. The Rolls-Royce Spectre has garnered a lot of attention from the high net worth youth she associates with. She knows a 19-year-old with a Rolls. That blew my mind.
Each door is about the same size as the original Smart car (remember them?!) sitting at 1.5 metres in length and are the largest ever fitted to a Rolls-Royce. Made from 100 per cent aluminium to reduce weight, they include a few new features including my favourite – when you press on the brake, the door automatically closes, so you don’t have to stretch a muscle to reach for the door handle which, considering it’s length, could be miles away if fully open. But if you happen to forget about the brake, stretch to close and pull a muscle, do not fear because the inbuilt massage chair function will take care of your injury. This is not the first the car I’ve seen with the massage function and I’m enjoying where this trend is heading. If you’re sitting in peak hour traffic morning and night this function could be a life saver. But if you’re driving a Rolls I don’t think you’re sitting in peak hour every day. You’re possibly smarter than that.
Two electric motors pull this 2890kg beast and it charges within reasonable time depending of course on your charger. Charge time from 10-80 per cent is 34 minutes using a 195kW (DC) fast charger: producing sufficient charge for 100km in around nine minutes. Using a lesser version 22kW (AC), it will take you five hours and 30 minutes.
Interestingly R-R went straight to electric rather than dabbling in a hybrid. The battery is a 102kWh lithium-ion unit, with its precious materials sourced from Morocco, Argentina and down under. Lucky us, we made the cut! It features braking recuperation which is quite handy in traffic once you learn the time it takes to come to a stop.
I found this piece of information about a typical R-R owner fascinating – the average Rolls-Royce client has more than seven cars in their garage to choose from and drive an average of 5,100km in their current Rolls-Royce per year. So apparently the Spectre fits perfectly into their lifestyle.
Unsurprisingly, the Spectre is reaching new heights in terms of technology and has triple the number of sender-receiver signals as any previous model when it come to the speed and accuracy of its responses to road and weather conditions. On straight roads, the system can automatically decouple Spectre’s anti-roll bars, allowing each wheel to act independently meaning not much can pull a thread in this magic carpet’s silk weave.
Nothing disappointed in this car. And at around $1 million drive-away, nor should it. If you’re feeling like a povo pleb you can pick the absolute basic model up closer to $770k before on roads with no customisation but there’s not many povo plebs driving around in one of these. The experience behind the wheel was nothing short of divine, cocooned in luxury with a laser focus on the pure driving pleasure enhanced by the silence of the all-electric powertrain.
Between the unadulterated silence, the criminally smooth driving experience and my lumber spine enjoying a massage, the next edition of the Spectre might need to come with an inbuilt coffee machine to keep its driver from drifting off.
It’s the ultimate ‘Boss Mobile’.
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