Speaker 1: This is the very first fully electric Rolls Royce, the Specter. This is the real deal. This will be coming to Rolls Roy's showrooms, and on the drives, the mansions of the rich and famous towards the end of next year. But this is my first chance to actually see it in the metal. In the original pictures that Rolls Roy released heavily camouflaged. This car looked a lot like the ra, like a two door Co [00:00:30] and that's really the the impression that I got this was going to be. But now actually seeing it, it feels different. We've been told the range will be over 500 kilometers from a about a hundred kilowatt hour battery. Now those are not insignificant numbers from a car, which is well as a Rolls Royce is already going to weigh a huge amount. The fact they've been able to create one that can do that kind of range and that will probably still drive exactly like a Rolls Royce, where [00:01:00] is fairly significant.
Speaker 1: Obviously parent company BMW already has experience in making fully electric cars, but this is built on the same platform as the Phantom eight, that architecture of luxury. Now we've seen that out there for a couple of years in terms of a platform, but this is the first time it's been used for what was probably, it's always its future intention somewhere to put batteries to power something like this. The grill on all Rolls Royces, the grill is one of its most key characteristics, [00:01:30] This definition of what you see as the car comes barreling towards you on the road. On Phantom, we saw the Pan Grill as the first time fully integrated into the front of the car. And this feels like it's more along those veins, but the grill usually allows air to get to a radiator, to cool an engine. There's no engine here, there's nothing to cool, but you can't have a Rolls Royce without this grill.
Speaker 1: So this redesigned grill serves a different purpose than a traditional grill. If [00:02:00] you look at the veins inside the grill, instead of just pointing forward and offering a gateway into the car, they're now angled. So this is no longer about channeling air for cooling. This now helps the aerodynamics of the car channeling air around it. Could the car have done without the grill altogether or mechanically? Functionally, probably, but it wouldn't have been a rules Royce. And that's what this car is all about. It has retained everything. It still needs to have to be a Roll Royce. It's [00:02:30] a roll Royce first and an EV second. So while it's recognizably Roll Royce does feel different and new. These split headlights at the front. While we've seen split headlights on Roll Royces before this feels sharper, more modern, even the spirit of ecstasy, which at first glance looks like the spirit of ecstasy on closer inspection has a a more aggressive forward leaning stance, perhaps pointing towards an electrified future.
Speaker 1: For Rolls Royce. In [00:03:00] general, the front feels more muscular over the wheel arch. Because of the narrowness of this grill, it gives a different proportion to race, It gives a different feel. It's imposing, but in a different way. Now, despite this also being a two-door cooe, like the rath where the two look very different is in profile. Right at the side here. There are some similarities. There's like a a speed back roof line, but when [00:03:30] you take the three major lines of the car, the roof line or a silhouette line, the shoulder line, and this down here, the Waff line, it feels more monolithic, is the way that Rolls Royce would describe it. It is imposing. It feels like it has a height partially due to these wheels. The largest ever fitted to a Rolls-Royce, although 20 twos are available, those are 23 inch wheels and they look every single one of those inches, but not out of place [00:04:00] on a car.
Speaker 1: This scale, when you look at it in profile from the side, it doesn't feel like a co. It doesn't quite feel like a saloon. It certainly doesn't feel like an suv. It's somewhere in the middle. And we see that with lots of manufacturers that move into EVs. They somehow discover new body shapes that we haven't seen. And that's because the placement of batteries as opposed to the placement of an engine gives you a lot more freedom to discover new spaces. Super [00:04:30] coup is what Rolls Royce calls it, coming around to the back. There's some nice touches that add subtlety, but also character to the car. This rear light cluster, while incredibly minimalist, feels so stylish as this art new Vogue kind of feel. Almost Charles Rennie Macintosh in its design. Lovely brushed metal on the outside and that's it in terms of detailing. When you come to the back, it's all [00:05:00] architectural, it's all built into the body.
Speaker 1: There's no flourish it, it's just functional and beautiful. It's not quite a boat tail in terms of how it tapers. But this two-tone roof line, which is two-toned from this section and this section, this color, by the way, char truce. This isn't normally where Roll Royce would put a two-one. Usually it would be this section and this section below. Splitting it this way gives the car an even more tapers look. You [00:05:30] can see this line here splits the the trunk lid and gives it that narrower feel at the back. A muscularity towards the sides. This car doesn't scream ev, it suggests it, but where most doesn't scream Ev is on the interior. Now, a lot of manufacturers, when they move from internal combustion engine cars to fully electric cars make a large distinction for customers that when [00:06:00] they get in these new cars, these avant gar technology cars, that they feel that they've adopted something new, futuristic touches, lighting treatments, infotainment system changes, all of these things to help people realize that they're part of something new, something different than what they may have driven before.
Speaker 1: Rolls Royce has very much gone the opposite way. The interior of this car feels incredibly familiar to anyone who sat in a Rolls-Royce ever. I know exactly where [00:06:30] every switch is, where every button is. It looks exactly how I would expect any new Rolls Royce to look. Let's not say there aren't any new touches. These doors, the largest coach doors ever fitted on a Rolls Royce one and a half meters long now have the option of these little light streets in there. They're illuminated from behind and kind of echo the star headliner that you can get in a lot of Rolls Royces now. And what I love about this treatment, and [00:07:00] you can haven't made bespoke much like the headliner, is that when these are illuminated, they don't just feel like static stars in the sky. They look like streaks. Like you've taken long exposure star photography, and while this is a snapshot of the night sky above you, this feels more like the sky's moving around you, that you are passing through a universe.
Speaker 1: It's a really, really nice touch. And for those with the means to customize it to their own intent, I think they'll get a really, really nice result. Another [00:07:30] little touch is a third screen here inside the car. Now, instead of that being an interface for a passenger to engage with the infotainment system or look up nav details, it's part of the design. It's part of the aesthetics of the car. When a customer commissions their Rolls-Royce, they can choose what goes in there. A static or dynamic graphic with either the name of the car, their name, or any [00:08:00] kind of artwork that they want to commission in digital form can play up on that screen. Compare that for example, to Phantom, where a physical piece of art that you commission is built into the dash to make your car entirely bespoke. This is a digital interpretation of that.
Speaker 1: You can have an artist commission, you ua, digital animation that plays when you get in and outta the car, something made specifically for you. Now, Rolls Royce doesn't have any intention of integrating something like an NFT into that. So perhaps as [00:08:30] a person who's collected a particular NFT or wants to integrate that into their car, into their Rolls-Royce, that would be an option. But I have suggested it to them and if they start doing it, I will expect a commission. And while that is a new touch, it does feel entirely at home inside a very, very familiar cockpit. And what does that include? Well, obviously incredibly comfortable seats, exquisite leather carpets that feel better than any carpet I've ever had in any home. You just want to drive this [00:09:00] thing barefoot. Every rolls Roy feels like this. It's fantastic. Every surface, every material is of the highest possible quality, and obviously you can customize the colors and trims to your heart's content.
Speaker 1: But one new thing that Specter offers is that you'll have the ability to change the color of this do here to match your interior. It's a nice little touch. There's still seats, although they're not the most roomy in the world for taking passengers along for you on the ride. But for [00:09:30] me, the real question is how will this car drive? I've been told that Rules Royce has in the same vein as trying to keep the interior feel very much like a Rolls-Royce and trying to keep every detail feel Rolls Royce first and Ev second. The driving dynamics will feel like that as well. When you put your foot down in this car, it's not going to feel like accelerating in a Tesla. It's not gonna throw you back in your seat and make you feel queasy and uncomfortable. This will build power the way Rolls Royces [00:10:00] build power. It will get to a high speed quickly, but it will do it with elegance, and it will do it in a way that isn't going to jostle you or your passengers. It's incredibly exciting that Rolls Royce is taking this leap into EVs, but they haven't done it on a whim. This is only now being done that Rolls Royce can guarantee a full Rolls Royce experience to its customers and one that doesn't feel a million miles from every other Rolls Royce. [00:10:30] And there's nothing wrong with that.
