Touted as being the “world’s first Ultra-Luxury Electric Super Coupé,” the Rolls-Royce Spectre in a right-hand-drive specification is making a splash at the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este. It’s the most expensive new EV money can buy by carrying an exorbitant starting price of $413,000 in the United States. The opulent two-door, four-seat beauty serves as a zero-emission successor to the Phantom Coupe and is imposingly large, stretching at 5453 millimeters (214.68 inches).
Although the world premiere took place in October 2022, RR has yet to start deliveries of the Spectre. It will happen in the fourth quarter of this year, which means the car showcased in Italy is a pre-production unit. As with the V12 models before it, the lavish coupe strives to be extremely silent, even more so than before since the battery doubles as almost 700 kilograms (1,543 pounds) of sound deadening.
The Spectre doesn’t bring radical styling changes compared to the current crop of ICE-powered models since it utilizes the same platform as the twelve-cylinder cars. Pompously called the “Architecture of Luxury,” it has been further developed to boost stiffness by 30% compared to previous models. Even though it benefits from an all-aluminum construction, it’s still heavier than BMW’s gargantuan XM plug-in hybrid SUV by tipping the scales at a colossal 2,975 kilograms (6,558 pounds). As for those wheels, you’re looking at the first two-door coupe to ride on 23-inch alloys in almost 100 years.
Showcasing the Spectre at the soaking-wet Villa d’Este could make the order books even thicker. Even before the world premiere, RR already had more than 300 people lined up to get a Spectre. At the beginning of this year, the Goodwood-based marque said production could increase to meet strong demand coming from early adopters. As to where it slots in the company’s lineup, it’s positioned above the Cullinan but below the flagship Phantom.
The ultra-luxury British brand has yet to finalize the specs but it has promised a dual-motor setup good for an estimated 577 horsepower (430 kilowatts) and a massive 900 Newton-meters (664 pound-feet) of torque. Not that many Spectre owners will test the 0 to 62 mph (100 km/h) sprint, but RR claims it’ll take four and a half seconds to get the job done. As for range, a fully charged battery will have enough juice for about 320 miles (520 kilometers) in the WLTP cycle.