Rolls-Royce Spectre is Rolls' first ELECTRIC car - looks like a Wraith EV

The Rolls-Royce Spectre, RR’s first EV, revealed with camouflaged with quotes from Charles Rolls

The first electric Rolls-Royce is the Rolls-Royce Spectre, revealed, but camouflaged, and heading for production in 2023.

It’s more than a decade since we saw the first electric Rolls-Royce – the Rolls-Royce 102EX Concept – and, for that time, it came with impressive specs.

Promising around 380bhp, a top speed of 100mph, 0-60mph in 8.0 seconds and a range of 125 miles from a battery pack we described at the time as “possibly the biggest lithium-ion battery bank on four wheels“, it was cutting edge and looked like the way forward.

But despite getting input from RR owners, and taking it to Salon Privé to get feedback, Rolls-Royce concluded their customers couldn’t live with range and performance so inferior to ICE and, more recently have only declared an intention to deliver an electric Rolls-Royce by 2030.

But RR has decided that the technology is now good enough for a Rolls-Royce and has revealed the electric Rolls-Royce Spectre – pictured above – disguised with inspirational quotes from founder Charles Rolls.

Looking like an electric Wraith, the Spectre won’t share BMW’s CLAR Platform but use the same aluminium platform as the Phantom which, say RR, was designed from the offset to accommodate alternative fuel powertrains.

With that declaration made, it seems almost certain that the Spectre will use a BMW powertrain delivering at least as much power as the current 6.6-litre ICE, although RR isn’t saying at the moment.

Rolls-Royce boss Torsten Müller-Ötvös said:

Rolls-Royce is to begin the on-road testing programme for an extraordinary new product that will elevate the global all-electric car revolution and create the first – and finest – super-luxury product of its type. This is not a prototype. It’s the real thing, it will be tested in plain sight and our clients will take first deliveries of the car in the fourth quarter of 2023.

Expect many spy shots, and a trickle of information on stuff like power and range, to emerge in the meantime.