The Bite Magazine - Spring/Summer 2024 - Issue 35

The world’s first ultra-luxury electric super coupé Spec- tre marks Rolls-Royce’s transition to electric propulsion. Jada Brookes looks at the two-door four-seated all-elec- tric Spectre. bitecars I n 1900, four years before he partnered with Henry Royce to form Rolls-Royce, Charles Stewart Rolls foresaw the advent of electric cars after acquiring a Columbia Electric Carriage. In a magazine article, he described it as a perfectly noiseless and clean al- ternative to the internal combustion engine. “There is no smell or vibration. They should become beneficial when fixed charging stations can be arranged.” Over 100 years later, the British marque finally achieved their dream of building a fully electric car. Electric cars were first popular in the late 1890s and early 1900s. English inventor Thomas Parker, respon- sible for electrifying the London Underground, built the first production electric car in Wolverhampton in 1884. German engineer Andreas Flocken created the first real electric car in 1888. Almost ten years later, British electrical engineer Walter Bersey designed and introduced a fleet of battery-powered taxis to London’s streets. New York City had a fleet of around 60 electric taxis. American inventor Thomas Edison sought to build a better battery. Porsche founder Ferdinand Porsche created the world’s first hybrid electric car powered by electricity stored in a battery and a gas engine. In 1914, Ford Motor founder Henry Ford and Edison collaborated to explore options for a low-cost electric car. However, the American marque’s famous Model T and gasoline-powered cars became more widely available and affordable, causing a massive decline in electric cars, which finally disappeared by 1935. After gas prices rocketed in the US in the 1960s and 1970s, renewed interest in electric cars arose. NASA raised the profile of electric cars with the Lunar Rov- er, the first human-crewed vehicle powered by elec- tricity to drive on the moon. In 1976, US Congress passed the Electric and Hybrid Vehicle Research, Development and Demonstration Act, authorising the Energy Department to support research and develop- ment in electric and hybrid vehicles. In the early 1990s, California’s clean air agency re- quested more fuel-efficient, lower or zero-emission vehicles on the road. Sony’s and Asahi Kasei’s lith- ium-ion batteries enabled electric vehicles to travel longer distances. Tesla Motors helped initiate a new electric car era in the early noughties when they started work on the Tesla Roadster in 2004. Nissan introduced the 2010 Leaf, the first mass-produced modern pure electric family hatchback car with zero emissions, in Japan and the US. What Drives This Power Model? The then Rolls-Royce Motor Cars CEO Torsten Müller-Ōtvös echoed Rolls’ words when he described the two-door four-seated Spectre as “silent and pow- erful”. He said the fully electric model “possesses all the qualities that have secured the Rolls-Royce leg- end and demonstrates how perfectly Rolls-Royce is suited to electrification. Spectre’s all-electric power- train will assure the marque’s sustained success and relevance while dramatically increasing the definition of each characteristic that makes a Rolls-Royce a Rolls-Royce.” Its first Goodwood-era Phantom in 2003, based on Bespoke architecture, marked Rolls-Royce 1.0. The enhanced stage of ‘Architecture of Luxury’, a new, highly flexible all-aluminium space-frame architec- ture and visionary feat of engineering, represented Rolls-Royce 2.0, providing the foundation for the Cullinan and Ghost models. Today’s advanced elec- tric drive technology fulfils Rolls-Royce 3.0, incorpo- rating electric cars and Decentralised Intelligence. The sophisticated extruded aluminium sections and integration of the 102 kWh battery in the 5 ½ metre long Spectre structure make it 30% stiffer than pre- vious Rolls-Royce models. The engineers placed the floor halfway between the sill structures through ar- chitectural flexibility instead of on top or underneath. They also created a channel for wiring and climate control pipework between the battery and the floor, with the battery mounted underneath to provide a perfectly smooth underfloor profile. Although Rolls-Royce hasn’t released specific ca- pacity numbers, the Spectre is expected to cover an all-electric range of 329 miles with 900Nm of torque from its 430 kW powertrain and achieve 0-60 mph ac- celeration in 4.4 seconds. It’s equipped with a motor at the front producing 255 hp and a more powerful unit at the back with 480 hp. The Spectre currently has a WLTP (Worldwide Harmonised Light Vehicle Test Procedure) power consumption of 2.9 miles/kWh and zero g/km CO2 emissions.