(October 4, 2021) Rolls-Royce this past week announced that its first electric car is going to be called “Spectre,” and it has unveiled the first prototype. The automaker also confirmed that it is going all-electric by 2030, one of the last luxury carmakers to confirm an all-electric future.
                       
The BMW-owned brand said in a statement that its first fully electric-powered car will be on the market in the fourth quarter of 2023, with testing to begin soon.

“With this new product we set out our credentials for the full electrification of our entire product portfolio by 2030, said Torsten Muller-Otvos, CEO of Rolls-Royce, which is based in the south of England. “By then, Rolls-Royce will no longer be in the business of producing or selling any internal combustion engine products.”

"Electric drive is uniquely and perfectly suited to Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, more so than any other automotive brand," he said. "It is silent, refined and creates torque almost instantly, going on to generate tremendous power."

Pictures of a disguised prototype of the Spectre released by Rolls-Royce showed the coupe will have a sloping rear back in the manner of the now-discontinued Wraith coupe. Its design suggests the electric Spectre will be a direct replacement for the Wraith, which was powered by a BMW-derived V-12 engine, like all of Rolls-Royce’s current lineup. The Spectre follows a Rolls-Royce naming tradition by using another word for ghost, following Wraith, Phantom and Ghost.

As with the Wraith, the doors are hinged to the back with the handle placed below the door mirror. Muiller-Otvos said in 2019 that the design of the company’s first EV "will be unmistakably a Rolls-Royce while also expressing it’s an electric powered car."

Rolls-Royce revealed the 102EX electric Phantom prototype in 2011, but despite electric power providing the silent "waftability" that customers covet in a Rolls-Royce, the project was stopped after concerns the driving range was too short and charging took too long.

The Jaguar brand of Tata Motors’ Jaguar Land Rover will go all-electric by 2025, Volkswagen’s luxury unit Bentley Motors by 2030, and Mercedes Benz maker Daimler by the same year, if market conditions allow.

Sources: Rolls-Royce, press reports