2024 Rolls-Royce Spectre electric coupe breaks cover

The luxury brand previews its first electric production car, alongside plans to completely phase out petrol power by the end of the decade.

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The 2024 Rolls-Royce Spectre has broken cover as the brand’s first ever all-electric model – and customer deliveries in Australia are just over two years away.

Alongside the reveal, the BMW-owned British luxury brand announced plans to entirely phase out the use of internal combustion engines – namely its 6.6-and 6.75-litre twin-turbo petrol V12s – by 2030. You can read more about that announcement by clicking here.

The teaser images for the all-new Spectre do not show the finalised vehicle, but rather a testing ‘mule’ hidden under thinly-disguised bodywork. However, Drive understands the production version will likely look very similar to the car pictured above.

Underpinned by Rolls-Royce’s now-ubiquitous modular aluminium platform (referred to by the brand as an “Architecture of Luxury”), the ‘fastback’ coupe features an aggressively-sloped rear, front-mounted door handles (for rear-hinged doors), and turbine-inspired 23-inch alloy wheels.

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The vehicle’s proportions appear to be derived from the current Wraith coupe, though the test mule’s front overhang is longer than today’s car, and its body sits higher, likely to accommodate a battery pack in the floor.

While performance specifications are so far thin on the ground, a spokesperson for the brand told Drive: “Nothing is more Rolls-Royce than being at the pinnacle end of the market … class-leading”.

Therefore, a range in excess of 800km is likely. Power and torque outputs are also expected to increase over the current 6.6-litre V12 Wraith Black Badge’s 465kW/870Nm.

Drive understands some form of autonomous capabilities – as previously seen in the futuristic 103EX concept of 2016 – will be offered.

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Approximately 2.5 million kilometres of testing is promised before the Spectre arrives in showrooms, however it’s unclear if prototypes will make it to Australia, with a spokesperson adding: “We do have simulations and conditions that can be equally recreated [overseas] … it wouldn’t necessarily need to, based on the past history of what we did with Phantom, Ghost, and Cullinan.”

The first consumer deliveries of the 2024 Rolls-Royce Spectre are promised in the fourth quarter of 2023 (October to December inclusive).

Pricing is yet to be announced, however high-margin prestige brands have generally managed to achieve near-parity between petrol and electric models. For reference, the existing Wraith coupe starts from $635,000 before on-road costs in Australia, rising to $735,000 before on-road costs for the Black Badge flagship.

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