Rolls-Royce has introduced a beautiful two-door, two-seater roadster known as the Droptail, demonstrating its steadfast adherence to a modern approach to coachbuilding. The Droptail continues the fashion started by the Sweptail in 2017 and the Boat Tail in 2021. Like its predecessors, the Droptail is a custom Rolls-Royce design created in collaboration with “the marque’s most ambitious clients.”
While it is understandable that the identity of these customers remains a secret, we do know that they fit the description of “significant collectors, patrons of the arts, and business leaders.” It’s important to note that the project will involve the development of four unique Droptail models, each tailored to the tastes and requirements of four different clients.
The Rolls-Royce Spectre is the British automaker’s first-ever electric vehicle to be produced in large numbers, and the Goodwood-based company has encountered longer-than-expected order backlogs.
The assumption is that after the car’s supply is depleted, the value of the used car market will soar. Goodwood, on the other hand, is supposedly not going to do any of that and will permanently blacklist anyone who sells their Rolls-Royce Spectre EV for profit.
“They’re going immediately on a blacklist and this is it—you will never ever have the chance to acquire again,” Rolls-Royce CEO Torsten Müller-Ötvös said.
Rolls is not the only company to voice its displeasure with resellers. Back in 2017, Porsche GT CEO Andreas Preuninger stated that Porsche was keeping track of which customers were reselling cars in order to restrict such customers from receiving special car allocations.
More recently, GM declared that if the Corvette Z06 is re-sold within a year, some warranties will be revoked, punishing any consumers who do so. Additionally, consumers who sell their Z06s will not be eligible for allocations on any future GM vehicles.
This is in fact not a new practise as Ferrari has been blacklisting re-sellers for years. Allocations for some of Ferrari’s rare hypercars such as the LaFerrari are only allocated for those who have been loyal to Ferrari and have been buying Ferraris for years. In fact, some Ferraris such as the LaFerrari are based on an invitation only purchase model.
The Spectre is expected to begin deliveries next year. According to reports, the electric coupe has received so many orders that the company’s CEO is already discussing raising production levels. The base model of the first-ever electric Rolls-Royce has a starting price of around $400,000 (RM1.8 million). However, analysts predict that few customers will choose the base model, therefore the majority of Spectres leaving the factory will likely cost more than $500,000 (RM2.3 million).
Thanks to a 700 kg high-voltage battery pack, the British luxury two-door boasts a WLTP driving range of 520km per charge. The 2857kg coupe is propelled by two independently stimulated synchronous motors that provide a combined 584hp and can accelerate the car from 0 to 100km/h in 4.4 seconds.
For the second time in five years, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars London, part of Vincent Tan’s H.R. Owen Group, has been voted Rolls-Royce Global Dealer of the Year.
H.R. Owen, which is owned by the Berjaya Group, is Britain’s leading luxury motor dealer group, representing some of the world’s most sought-after premium car brands – Bugatti, Rolls-Royce, Aston Martin, Bentley, Ferrari, Maserati, Lamborghini, BAC, Rimac, Czinger, Hennessey and Radford.
The London dealership also made history by becoming the first to win three accolades in a single year, taking Regional Sales Dealer of the Year and Regional Whispers Dealer of the Year. The annual awards, announced in a series of in-person and virtual events, recognise the achievements of the global network of Rolls-Royce showrooms in providing great service and experiences to their customers.
In order to become an electric-only brand by 2030, Rolls-Royce is planning to introduce its first BEV, the Spectre, in the fourth quarter of 2023.
However, when the technology is developed enough to be widely commercialised, Rolls-Royce is looking into a different route to electrification in which it may switch from battery power to hydrogen fuel cells.
According to the CEO of Rolls-Royce Torsten Müller-Ötvös, the brand’s strategy leaves the door open for future consideration of hydrogen, Autocar reported.
Müller-Ötvös reacted to the idea that his company’s huge, heavy luxury cars, which are famed in part for their smooth V12 engines, might benefit from the hydrogen combustion technology.
The Rolls-Royce Cullinan is the pinnacle of a full-sized luxury SUV. Even it’s name is derived from the Cullinan Diamond, the largest gem-quality rough diamond ever discovered.
Revealed in 2018, the front grille and the headlamps, which make up the majority of the Cullinan’s exterior design, took inspiration from the cutting-edge 8th-generation Rolls-Royce Phantom. New design leather-applied seats and wood features can be found inside. The vehicle also boasts brand-new leather “cocktail suit” camping seats that can be opened from the trunk, a first for its kind. And the Cullinan is the only Rolls-Royce that has a glass wall separating the passenger area from the cargo area.
The L5, China’s most expensive domestic vehicle, made its grand appearance at the Shanghai Auto Show with the latest version of Hongqi’s flagship sedan. Just like its predecessor, it follows the classic shape and lines. The outcome of it looks like a 1940s lowrider and a 2020s Rolls-Royce had a baby.
On that note, it is heavily influenced by the Brit-built Rolls and is said to be more imposing and expensive. Well, if you’re a Chinese billionaire, price should not be an issue.
For many decades, when writing about Rolls-Royce cars, motoring journalists would mention Crewe, the location in England where they were made since 1946. However, Crewe’s association with Rolls-Royce would cease (and become associated with Bentley) after 2002 when the BMW Group acquired full ownership of all elements of the Rolls-Royce brand in 2003.
This development meant that BMW had to provide Rolls-Royce with a new home, certainly in England, and a brand new factory was built at Goodwood in Sussex with an initial investment of £65 million. The site was meaningful as it was just about 15 kms from where the company’s co-founder, Sir Henry Royce, lived and worked for the last 16 years of his long and illustrious life.
In 2007, the total sales of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars passed 1,000 units, and within 15 years, the annual volume would steadily grow to reach 6,021 units in 2022. This is the first time in the company’s 118-year history that its sales have exceeded 6,000 in a single 12-month period. The value of Bespoke commissions also reached record levels, while demand for all Rolls Royce models was exceptionally strong, with advance orders secured far into 2023.
The impressive growth – 8% over the 2021 volume – was achieved by sales in almost all regions. The Americas was the largest single region for Rolls-Royce, while Greater China took the second largest number of vehicles. The Asia-Pacific region also achieved higher sales than ever before.
In 1900, Rolls-Royce co-founder, Charles Rolls, experienced an electrically-powered car. Even back then, there were cars that were running on electricity but the technology then made them impractical and inconvenient. Nevertheless, Rolls understood the potential of such cars as clean, noiseless transport and foresaw a time when they would be popular again – with the appropriate supporting infrastructure (ie charging stations).
Today, more than 120 years later, that time has come and Rolls-Royce fulfils the prophecy of its founding father with the presentation of the Spectre. This totally new model not only marks a very historic moment for Rolls-Royce but is also a historic moment for electrification: the technology has now reached a standard where it is able to provide the Rolls-Royce experience.
“The advent of our first battery-electric motor car marks the start of a bold new era for Rolls-Royce. It is also the culmination of a long, painstaking process, in which every element in creating this landmark car has been considered in the minutest detail, over numerous iterations. It states the direction for the future of our marque and perfectly answers a call from the most discerning individuals in the world to elevate the electric motor car experience, because Spectre is a Rolls-Royce first and an electric car second,” said Torsten Muller-Otvos, CEO of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, as he unveiled the car today.
Rolls-Royce, like other carmakers, is on an electrification journey as social demands are growing for cars to be environment-friendly. Presumably, its customers also expect that if the Rolls-Royce goes electric, it will do so without losing any of the superlative attributes that keep it at the topmost end of the car market. That’s the challenge for Rolls-Royce and it may seem like the company would need time to get a perfect electrically-powered limousine into production that Is worthy of having the Spirit of Ecstasy on the bonnet.
Experience with electric power But electric power Is not new to the company as Charles Rolls, one of the founders, personally experienced electric cars in 1900. He was impressed enough to say this: “The electric car is perfectly noiseless and clean. There is no smell or vibration. They should become very useful when fixed charging stations can be arranged.”
Of course, In the years that followed, Rolls-Royce gave attention to the internal combustion engine instead, since that was the way the industry was going. But with its technological resources, it could still develop an electric car and did so in 2011 with a fully electric Experimental Phantom concept named 102EX (which was followed by 103EX). But in 2011, the urgency was not there to fully commit to electric power, so the company did not go further.
Now that there is a commitment to be fully electric by 2030, the company is drawing on past experience and also the latest technologies. Thus it was able to have running prototype by September last year for real-world testing. To ensure that the new car, to be called Spectre, is a true Rolls-Royce, it will undergo the most demanding testing programme ever conceived by the marque. No less than 2.5 million kms will be covered by prototypes, simulating on average more than 400 years of use for a Rolls-Royce.
New phase in testing Earlier this year, in Sweden, the Spectre prototype received the first ‘lessons’ in a finishing school that is custom designed to teach the car how to behave and react like a Rolls-Royce. Over the past months, the marque’s test and development engineers have shifted their focus from extreme conditions to more formal scrutiny in a location that reflects the car’s everyday use: the French Riviera.
The French Riviera and its roads present a perfect combination of the types of conditions that will be demanded from future owners of the Spectre, ranging from technical coastal corniches to faster inland carriageways. Forming a crucial part of the global testing programme, a total of 625,000 kms will be covered.
This phase is split into two parts, beginning at the historic Autodrome de Miramas proving ground (a circuit that once hosted the 1926 Grand Prix) which is a state-of-the-art test and development facility. The engineers will be able to do their testing in privacy as there are more than 60 kms of closed routes and 20 test track environments over its 1,198-acre site.
These include irrigation units that create standing water, demanding handling circuits with tight corners and adverse cambers, as well as a heavily banked 5-km 3-lane high-speed bowl, enabling the Spectre to be tested at continuous high speeds.
Driving in real-life conditions The second phase of testing moves around the countryside surrounding the Autodrome de Miramas. Many Rolls-Royce owners drive around this region, therefore a significant 55% of testing here has taken place on the very roads that many production Spectres will be driven on following first customer deliveries in the fourth quarter of 2023.
This provision for testing under local, real-life conditions is repeated in key markets around the world, as Rolls-Royce will make sure that its products meet – and usually exceed – the expectations of its highly discerning customer group.
Unlike any other Rolls-Royce The Spectre is unlike any Rolls-Royce before it. This is not only because of its fully electric powertrain, but also its unprecedented computing power and application of advanced data-processing technologies. It will be the most connected Rolls-Royce ever, with each of its components more intelligent than in any previous Rolls-Royce.
Yet developing the Spectre is not an exercise in computer science alone. The car requires a response to hundreds of thousands of possible scenarios and therefore it needs the most skilled and experienced specialists to define and finesse an appropriate mechanical reaction. Over the course of the Riviera Testing Programme, the marque’s most experienced engineers are painstakingly creating a dedicated control for each of Spectre’s 25,000-plus functions, incorporating variations of response depending on factors including weather, driver behaviour, vehicle status and road conditions.
‘Magic carpet ride’ in high definition Following months of continual testing, a new suspension technology has been approved that will give the Spectre Rolls-Royce’s hallmark ‘magic carpet ride’. This technology is now being refined and perfected at Miramas and on the roads of the French Riviera.
The Spectre will have an all-aluminium spaceframe architecture – only used by Rolls-Royce – which has enabled the designers to create a new class of Rolls-Royce – the Electric Super Coupe. To achieve the most rigid body in the marque’s history, the aluminium architecture is reinforced with steel sections that provide exceptional torsional rigidity. This is combined with aluminium body sections that represent the largest of any Rolls-Royce yet.
New aerodynamic standard In announcing the redesigned Spirit of Ecstasy mascot that will sit proudly at the prow of Spectre, Rolls-Royce aerodynamicists predicted that the new car would have a drag coefficient just 0.26 Cd, making it the most aerodynamic Rolls-Royce ever created. Following rigorous wind tunnel testing, digital modelling and continuous high-speed testing in Miramas, this figure has been further reduced to 0.25. This does not just represent a record in the context of Rolls-Royce, but is unprecedented in the luxury sector.
“It is no exaggeration to state that Spectre is the most anticipated Rolls-Royce ever. Free from the restrictions connected to the internal combustion engine, our battery-electric vehicle will offer the purest expression of the Rolls-Royce experience in the marque’s 118-year history. This latest testing phase proves a suite of advanced technologies that underpin a symbolic shift for Rolls-Royce as it progresses towards a bright, bold, all-electric future. This will secure the ongoing relevance of our brand for generations to come,” said Torsten Muller-Otvos, CEO of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars.
