Rolls-Royce is also going electric. By the end of the decade, the British car manufacturer will say goodbye to its magnificent V12 engines and switch completely to electric drives. The first model is the Rolls-Royce Specter.
And it will celebrate its official world premiere in 2023. The fans of the traditional British manufacturer, which has been part of the BMW Group for many years, say goodbye to its magnificent V12 turbo units and jump into the electric age. It can hardly be assumed that all current customers will be enthusiastic about this, because the luxury brand Rolls-Royce has become what it is today, not least thanks to its spectacular engine construction art: the most exclusive car brand in the world. The focus on combustion engines is now a thing of the past, because in the case of electric models, the in-house engine building art is no longer far behind and instead it is about other topics.
The first model that Rolls-Royce wants to put on electrically powered wheels is the Specter. A coupé based on the model of the elegant Wraith, which, however, wants to keep its inner qualities secret for another two years. When it comes to engine performance, one can hardly fall behind the current V12 combustion engines, whose supercharged V12 units offer engine outputs of over 600 hp in some cases and a minimum range of over 400 kilometers seems to have been set.
“Today marks the most important day in the history of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars since May 4, 1904. On this day our founding fathers Charles Rolls and Sir Henry Royce met for the first time and agreed that they were the best car in the world “, Rolls-Royce CEO Torsten Müller-Ötvös looks back in history,” today, 117 years later, I can proudly announce that Rolls-Royce is starting the testing program for a completely new, absolutely extraordinary product Drive the global all-electric automobile revolution and be the first – and best – super-luxury product of its kind. This is not a prototype.
Unlike many other manufacturers, Rolls-Royce was already testing electric motors at the beginning of the 20th century. Sir Henry Royce was fascinated by everything electrical at the beginning of his career and his first company called FH Royce and Company developed dynamos, electric crane motors and patented the incandescent lamp socket with a bayonet lock. Charles Rolls, the other part of the dynamic developer duo, predicted an electrified future more than 100 years ago, because in April 1900 he saw an early electric vehicle called Columbia and declared its electric drive ideal for vehicles: “An electric car is absolutely noiseless clean. There are no odors or vibrations and it should work as long as there are fixed charging points. But at the moment I don’t think it’s practical – at least not for a long time. ” Charles Rolls was to be proved right, because in the next hundred years of automotive history, electric cars hardly got a wheel on the ground.
In 2011, Rolls-Royce revived the previous ideas about electric drive for the first time and created the one-off Rolls-Royce Phantom with electric drive, the 102 EX. In 2016, the Bavarian British followed up with the visionary 103 EX for the 100th birthday of the BMW brand. Torsten Müller-Ötvös: “Rolls-Royce has embarked on a historic and unique undertaking that is becoming a reality today. Our designers and engineers have worked tirelessly to get us here: We are now ready to test the first fully electric Rolls-Royce to begin the story. ” The development of the electric Rolls-Royce Specter has been going on for several years with the support of BMW. The official announcement by the British is not surprising, as the models are now increasingly leaving the secret BMW test sites around the world on their total of 2.5 million test kilometers and undergo real road tests.
“In 2016 we presented the Phantom and with it the brand’s proprietary aluminum architecture: the scalable spaceframe that has since been used in all new Rolls-Royce automobiles,” explains Müller-Ötvös, “this unique technology – by Rolls-Royce for Rolls -Royce developed and reserved exclusively for the brand – is not only designed for models with a combustion engine, but also for vehicles with other drives. ” The upcoming electric models will also benefit from this, and with it the first release of the Rolls-Royce Specter. In addition to the electric coupé of the Specter, the Goodwood carmaker has two other models, a luxury sedan and a corresponding SUV in the specific planning phase and, last but not least, can rely on drive and battery technology from the BMW Group for all three models.
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