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.”
Sounds like the predicament we’re in today, doesn’t it? The EVs themselves are sound, but the infrastructure isn’t quite there yet. However, that statement wasn’t made by some industry pundit in Germany, a senator from Washington or a tech genius from Silicon Valley. Those are the prescient words of Charles Rolls, co-founder of Rolls-Royce. And they were spoken in the year 1900.
You see, both Rolls and Sir Henry Royce were big proponents of all things electrified. They made dynamos and electric motors for cranes and championed other brands’ forays into electric cars, but before committing their own initials to an EV, they were determined to get it absolutely right. It wouldn’t be until the Phantom-based 102EX of 2011 – a concept that featured, among much else, wireless car charging – that Rolls-Royce first showed proper intent. But still, it wasn’t ready.
It wouldn’t be for another 11 years – and finally in 2022 – that we got our first glimpse of the Spectre, an EV that didn’t take the form of a traditional saloon car or a more contemporary two-box SUV. No, it was a swooping two-door, four-seat coupé, which is just as well for the relative aerodynamic benefits that are so important for an EV. But it was more to make a statement that an electric Rolls-Royce could at once be luxurious, dynamic and uncompromising.
2024 Rolls Royce Spectre exterior design and engineering – 9/10
Unmistakably a Rolls with imposing presence in a sleek form
Saumil Shah
Nikhil Bhatia
Lenny D'sa
Hormazd Sorabjee
