Rolls Royce Announces Its First All-Electric 'Ultra Luxury Super Coupe':
Rolls-Royce pledged a year ago to make its fleet fully electric by 2030. "In 1900, Rolls-Royce co-founder, Charles Rolls, prophesised an electric future for the motor car...providing there was sufficient infrastructure to support it," the automaker said. With its signature Rolls-Royce grille and sleek, aerodynamic design, the Spectre just might be the perfect catalyst for the brand's evolution into a more modern lineup.
The new vehicle is the spiritual successor to the Phantom Coupé, a grand tourer the automaker first introduced back in 2008. Both are two-doors with laid-back silhouettes, and while the Spectre isn't quite as big as its inspiration, the models share Rolls-Royce's all-aluminum "Architecture of Luxury." The Spectre borrows a revamped version of the Ghost's Planar suspension, which uses a camera system to monitor the road and adjust its air springs and adaptive dampers in real time. Spectre's iteration allows for temporary antiroll bar decoupling, which creates a softer ride when navigating road irregularities.
The Spectre's all-electric powertrain will provide 430 kilowatts of power and 900 Newton meters of torque, bringing the vehicle's expected 0-to-60 miles per hour time to 4.4 seconds. While this might not be as fast as the now-unavailable Tesla Model S Performance (2.3 seconds) or Porsche Taycan Turbo S (2.6 seconds), the Spectre packs an extra 1,000 pounds or so, making it relatively lithe for its 6,000-plus pound weight. Rolls Royce also expects the Spectre to have a single-charge range of 320 miles, which will be continually tested during a lengthy 1.5 million-mile journey to simulate more than 400 years of use.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by VanessaE on Sunday October 23 2022, @11:58PM (6 children)
This car is almost half a million bucks fully loaded. This is NOT helping with the adoption of EVs, people! Shit like this just makes the masses think EVs are only rich-peoples' toys...
(Score: 2) by captain normal on Monday October 24 2022, @04:21AM (5 children)
Agree...now just who is going to step up and be the Henry Ford of the electric car?
"It is easier to fool someone than it is to convince them that they have been fooled" Mark Twain
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 24 2022, @02:16PM (4 children)
> who is going to step up and be the Henry Ford of the electric car?
One answer -- the 100+ companies in China that make small electric cars/trikes. Of course there will be market shakeout but I think that some will survive and continue to make low cost cars. Eventually the safety rules in China will be made similar to those in N. America and/or Europe and then we will see a flood of these cars.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Monday October 24 2022, @03:46PM (3 children)
So, your "Henry Ford" is to outsource all the rest of the manufacturing jobs that are in the USA, to China? That sounds stupendously stupid. How long do you think it will take?
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by legont on Monday October 24 2022, @11:29PM (2 children)
It's sad, but China already makes better than Tesla electric cars. Better distance, better batteries, better self driving, better looking, cheaper. Can't say anything about quality as I have not touch both, but Tesla' quality, I was told, is the worst among the US cars.
Since there really are more than 100 companies competing, the law of capitalism should work across the board. It's not outsource per se as most of them are pure Chinese designed.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 25 2022, @01:48AM (1 child)
> It's not outsource per se as most of them are pure Chinese designed.
Correct. Some very clean and nice looking, others quirky looking, and some bottom feeders that are nearly direct copies of existing European or US body styling (with or without licensing the design...)
The only thing keeping these low cost electric cars out of the USA are a variety of rules & regulations covering crash safety and a variety of other aspects of car design. The same was already true for ICE powered cars, and in that case there are also USA smog rules that imported cars must meet. Going to BEV means that the smog rules don't apply.
The Chinese makers are not my choice for a "Henry Ford" of the electric car, but they may be an inevitable force of capitalism if the safety rules in China are changed to match those in USA (or Euro zone).
(Score: 2) by legont on Wednesday October 26 2022, @12:47AM
Once upon a time, a Russian guy in Brooklyn bought a funny looking Japanese car called Acura. Everybody laughed at him. 10 years later he sold his car for 50% more than he paid for it.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 2) by legont on Monday October 24 2022, @01:51AM (4 children)
An electric can't gave a grille unless it's a fony prostituting gas nostalgia.
Come on, tree huggers, get your own design that reflects functionality. Until than you get no respect.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 2) by Rich on Monday October 24 2022, @11:06AM (3 children)
Same for fossil-fuel powered. The cooling radiators (engine heat, and possibly oil, air condition, engine charge) are usually placed below the bumper. The "grille" is just decoration these days, but an electric car will still need radiators for heat pump and battery management.
Also, for the shape, the Renault Twingo I had it nailed down 30 years ago, and everything can scale down (e.g. Smart 450) or up (sort of Audi A2 or Toyota Prius) from it. Cab-forward, box, and to trade space for range, maybe Kamm-back. Though, for height-increasing "skateboard"-style batteries, something needs to go in the front as separating design element, and that would usually look like a face-forming grille, I suppose. See Smart 450, which already was designed with some kind of sandwich floor. Nothing much new to invent, but even later versions of Twingo and Smart miss the mark again...
(Score: 2) by legont on Monday October 24 2022, @11:18PM (2 children)
What? Are we from different planets?
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 2) by Rich on Tuesday October 25 2022, @10:18AM (1 child)
Hmm. Maybe I've had too many sports cars without a grille at all, these had the radiators "low and wide"... Anyway, for mentioned cars (Smart 450, Twingo) a square radiator sits behind the bumper and gets air from both below and above the bumper, with the lower opening being significantly larger than the upper one. For the Audi A2, this is even more extreme, the "grille" originally was a flat plate serving as access flap to the service compartment behind it, with the bonnet screwed down to make a point. They dropped that on later models and went for a ribbed decoration, probably hoping the grille-look would make people start buying the car.
The days where you had a standing radiator with the filler cap on top of it are definitely over, they all have a separate header tank now and the radiator has to fit into the aero considerations and sit low.
(Score: 2) by legont on Wednesday October 26 2022, @12:37AM
Holly fucking shit! Well, Smart = stupid in my book and I don't know what Twingo is and A2 is crap as well as BMW below 3, but I believe you now. They really do kill cars, I guess.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Monday October 24 2022, @04:49AM
Just heard about the new Cadillac EV. Quite pricey at $300k+, "hand-built". It'll be interesting to see if they can attract high-end buyers who would otherwise buy the Rolls, Bentley, etc.
https://www.autoweek.com/news/future-cars/a40679497/cadillac-celestiq-concept-reveal/ [autoweek.com]
https://www.forbes.com/wheels/news/2024-cadillac-celestiq-launch/ [forbes.com]