Rolls-Royce Spectre review

But time and legislation moved on, and in the Spring of 2011, Rolls-Royce unveiled the experimental EX120 model which was also known as the Phantom EE. That car had a Tesla drivetrain adapted by Lotus Engineering and Williams Advanced Engineering and used an Axiom 640kg, 71kWh lithium-ion nickel manganese cobalt (NMC) battery pack under the bonnet. I drove it and while it was certainly brisk for a 2.5-tonne behemoth, with a 0-62mph acceleration time of 5.7sec, the range was just 124 miles, the charge time 24 hours and Rolls-Royce said that with battery prices at the time, the cost to build it would be at least twice the price of the £285,200 petrol-engined Phantom.

EX120 was an interesting experiment, and then there was the extraordinary 103EX of 2016, a phantasmagorical design study of an electric future which presumably didn’t go down that well with Rolls-Royce customers, though again things have moved on apace since and we’re now looking at the first production battery model.

While Rolls-Royce continues with its modern obsession with ghoulish model names, the Spectre is all-new (and nothing to do with James Bond’s nemesis). It’s a two-door coupé in the manner of the Bentley Continental GT, though at 5.5 metres long, 2080mm wide and 1559mm tall (or 18 feet long, 82 inches wide and 61 inches tall), it’s bigger than the old two-door Wraith and Dawn and more a replacement for the Phantom Coupé which sold in very limited numbers and is six years out of production. It runs on a 3210mm (126in) wheelbase, which gives a decent amount of room for the battery pack between the wheels.

The aluminium spaceframe is a strengthened adaptation of that underpinning the  Phantom, Cullinan and Ghost, so that means a chassis with active damping and anti-roll bars, adaptive Planar air suspension and four-wheel steering. On top sits a body displaying if not quite delicate beauty, then at least rare distinction with a heavy low nose and most of the overhang at the rear, which has a shape strangely reminiscent of a number of the similar large coupés. In the photos it sort of makes sense; up close it’s massive, those aluminium side pressings the largest such items in the automotive industry.

But even if it’s big, it is quite stunning from some angles. Design Director Anders Warming sighs when he tells us of the 830 hours in the wind tunnel refining the relationship between the lower bonnet and Grecian grille, with its remodelled and stumpy Spirit of Ecstasy and the roof line down to the tail. Tiny details here add several miles to the range, and the coefficient of drag at 0.25Cd is a Rolls-Royce record.

The drivetrain comes straight outta Munich, with a lithium-ion NMC battery with a usable 102kWh of energy, the largest BMW unit available. There are two magnet-less, separately-excited synchronous electric drive motors, one on each axle, providing a maximum achievable system output of 567bhp and 664lb ft. Considering the three-tonne kerb weight, the 323-mile range and 0-62 acceleration of 4.5sec are pretty remarkable. Rolls-Royce doesn’t give a top speed but reckon on over 100mph, but not by much.

Recharging times are five and a half hours for a full charge on a 22kW AC supply (apparently most owners have their own three-phase supply – of course they do). A 50kW DC charger gives a 10-80 per cent charge in 1hr 35mins and the Spectre will accept fast charging up to 195kW, which will give the same charge in 34 minutes.

We are told that most owners prefer to charge at home and have other vehicles with which to do the really long-haul travel. Yet we know that charging is so much part of the ownership experience of an electric car that Ford and General Motors have bought their way into Tesla’s Supercharger network and Mercedes-Benz is building its own charging network with toilet and snacks provision worthy of Merc owners. Rolls-Royce’s response is absolutely nothing, no privileged access, no special charging facilities, not even a nice wall box with the interlocking RR logo on the front. Its defence of this inaction could be summed up as ‘the market will provide’ and since it is so fast moving, anything that is done now will be obsolete by the time it’s in place. Hum…

The frameless doors are hinged at the rear and at 1.5 metres in length the largest in existence, so getting out of this car in a multistorey is going to be something of a struggle, should owners be so moved to mix it in the mall. The doors are motorised, but the automatic locking isn’t the most intuitive in the world, so there’s a fair bit of soundlessly pointing at buttons from the passenger stuck outside.

It’s all beautifully put together with a precision in all the test cars at the Californian launch which defied their prototype status. Tiny details mark the design out, such as those rear-lamp clusters reminiscent of 1930s Americana and which run contrary to the current vogue for endless transverse LED units.

Inside those big seats also contain the seat belts, which makes access to the rear a tad easier, but also means they are massive, heavy, crash-proof constructions, which although motorised, move around with all the speed of Dracula’s coffin lid. Those seats also mean that there’ll likely be a drophead version – where else are you going to anchor the belts if you’ve got no B-pillar?

In fact, considering its size, the Spectre feels a bit cramped for you, your passengers and your luggage. There’s an awful lot of interior in there, all thrusting out at you like an insistent baby hippo. The boot swallows 380 litres (about the same amount as a Ford Focus or Volkswagen Golf) and that includes the 50-litre cubby under the floor as a store for the charge cables.

The fascia has a touchscreen, but it’s modest in size and reasonably logical to use, though there’s also a series of short-cut buttons to help access features and some of the displays for driving data are far from the most obvious. Sadly, the steering wheel is too thick and I longed for the old thin-rimmed precision device on previous Rollers.

In the back, the twin seats are quite comfortable, with just enough headroom and lots of legroom, though you sit laid back and low in the cabin and while the driver and passenger seats get roof grab handles, rear passengers don’t, so your core stability is severely tested if the Spectre is cornered with gusto. The rear windows might be a bit small, but the way they tilt and glide when lowered into the body is a dance of engineering beauty.

As for the interior spec, again it’s a tribute to the Goodwood plant staff craft and skill, though some of the options are quite eye popping and in fairly questionable taste – and that’s before we get to the pink leather cabin in one of the test cars. The roof lining can be specified with the starlight pin-prick lights (complete with random shooting stars), which tread a fine line between a charming and restful representation of the sky at night and the garish display of a fairground ride. That starlight finish can also be specified on the door cards and on fascia displays, where the total effect steps firmly into the latter camp.

Talking of questionable, there’s also an exclusive digital club for owners called Whispers, which frankly would be rather hard to explain to Mrs English…

Start up is silent as the quite lovely three-dial digital instrument binnacle gently glows with a lambent light of an autumn evening. Drive selection is via a steering column stalk and the throttle is sufficiently long in travel to ensure getting underway is relatively simple. The Spectre’s size doesn’t, though, and most six foot-plus drivers found they needed to raise the seat to see over the enormous bonnet and get some idea where the whole car began and ended. That process isn’t helped by the frankly enormous windscreen pillars designed to take the weight of the body in a roll over and the elephant’s ears wing mirrors. ‘We did look at cameras instead, but they aren’t for us,’ says Mihiar Ayoubi, director of engineering – amen to that.

There is a bit of a delay built into the throttle, apparently so passengers’ champagne doesn’t spill out of the glass if you decide to light up the wheels, though it’s not really noticeable and this three-tonne monster fires itself up the road with alacrity if you so choose. Performance is good, though it’s more of the unstoppable force meeting the immovable object variety rather than the catapult acceleration of, say, a top-model Porsche Taycan or Tesla. There is an artificial noise if you want it, but for the most part you’d prefer to savour the silence which at times is uncanny, though passenger conversation isn’t muffled as it is with other heavily insulated cars where your words just drop out of your mouth.

It’s the ride and handling where this behemoth starts to show its slip, though to be fair it’s a very small glimpse. You need to learn this car and at first it feels a little uncontrolled with steering that seems over-excitable and over-assisted. The suspension is soft and long-travel and the damping seems noticeable by its absence. Waftability is the excruciating Anglo-German made-up name given to this trait and for the most part it’s a refreshing change from the strictly controlled and mostly uncomfortable battery-electric rivals. The Spectre lollops along, with subtle body control and roll resistance through the 12-volt automatic anti-roll bars which are slow and subtle in operation.

It’s pretty good going slowly, sublime when travelling at 60mph or so, especially when you can feel the front suspension sending messages to the rear about the bump’s severity (there are 25 new algorithms on this new car each dealing with 1000 inputs). Yet on certain roads at certain speeds the Spectre gets its knickers in a twist with the body firing off the peak, squirrelling around and then plumping down like a hen on her egg – comfy and wafting this ain’t.

What’s more, there is an absolute refusal to settle at all speeds, with the body pumping up and down like a Zumba class on a bouncy castle even on what appears to be perfectly flat roads. Go madly fast and things improve, although the initial response on turning in fast is very Lady Bracknellish: ‘A Corner!’ It holds on well, though, and those slow anti-roll bars eventually hold the body up, but rear-seat passengers get very nauseous and tyre and brake performance fall off fast.

It’s all about wheel travel and those big 23-inch diameter Pirellis have a tendency to get quite excitable when the road surface isn’t as smooth as a cherub’s bottom, but I think there’s a bit too much body movement and while he strongly defends his car, Ayoubi says he would tighten it up a bit for the forthcoming Black Series.

The brakes are sublime, with a superb build-up of retardation, a progressive response so you can bring the car to a halt gently and a lovely mix of regeneration and friction braking.

Typically for a Rolls-Royce there’s no sport button, endless dynamic modes or steering-wheel paddles – the engineers give you the best choice and that’s it. There is, however, a B button, which adds extra retardation braking to the mix. On hill descents this is a boon, but it’s a crude device compared with the subtlety of the rest of the brake system. It also comes in too early when the throttle is eased, which makes it hard to use it as a one-pedal device. Battles raged within the engineering department about the existence and response of the B button and I’m afraid I think they chose wrong here.

The range is claimed to be 323 miles on a WLTP test and we achieved about 2.6m/kWh which equates to about 250 miles of range driving mostly gently at steady and low speeds on heavily trafficked Californian roads. This was a blistering day and the air conditioning was working hard. You also get some of the car’s colossal weight back through brake regeneration and after 144 miles we’d recovered 26.4kWh.

Feather foot it and you might just see 275 miles, but if, as Rolls-Royce claims, owners will charge at home, they’re never going to travel farther than a 100-mile radius.

And with a taxed price which starts at £330,000, that makes the Spectre a spectacularly pricey runaround, though t’was ever thus with this company. What’s more, owners tend to lavish extras on their cars like notes pushed into the stocking tops of the dancers at Whispers. Typical transaction prices are well into the mid 400 thousand; the cars on the press fleet would retail at around £450,000. It certainly is tough at the top.

I’d expected this car to be different and to some extent provide a logical extension of the effortless travel which the company has been striving for all these years. ‘We wanted a Rolls-Royce first, an electric car second,’ says R-R chief executive Torsten Müller-Ötvös. But it’s the way the company has created this electric car including the limitations as well as the advantages forced on it by carrying three quarters of a tonne of lithium-ion cells around in the floor which define the Spectre as much as the achievement of Charles Rolls’ prophecy.

I’ve got a feeling Rolls-Royce is going to get better at battery-electric and reckon if I was in the lucky position of having the readies, I’d bide my time.