Rolls-Royce Specter shows what a stylish EV looks like at Villa d’Este

Touted as ‘the world’s first ultra-luxury electric super-coupé’, the Rolls-Royce Specter impresses the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este in a right-hand drive specification. It’s the most expensive new EV you can buy with an exorbitant starting price of $413,000 in the United States. Serving as a zero-emission successor to the Phantom Coupé, the sumptuous two-door, four-seat beauty is imposingly large, measuring 5,453 millimeters (214.68 inches) in length.

Although the world premiere took place in October 2022, RR has yet to start shipping the Spectre. It will happen in the fourth quarter of this year, which means that the car on display in Italy is a pre-production unit. As with the V12 models before it, the lavish coupe aims to be extremely quiet, even more so than before, as the battery doubles as nearly 700 kilograms (1,543 pounds) of sound deadening.

The Specter doesn’t feature any radical styling changes compared to the current crop of ICE-powered models, as it uses the same platform as the twelve-cylinder cars. Pompously dubbed the “Architecture of Luxury”, it has been further developed to increase stiffness by 30% compared to previous models. While it benefits from all-aluminium construction, it still outweighs BMW’s mammoth XM plug-in hybrid SUV by tipping the scales at a colossal 2,975 kilograms (6,558 pounds). As for those wheels, you’re looking at the first two-door coupe to run on 23-inch alloy wheels in nearly 100 years.

The presentation of the Specter in the soaking wet Villa d’Este could make the order books even thicker. Even before the world premiere, RR already had over 300 people lined up to get their hands on a Specter. Early this year, the Goodwood-based brand said production could increase to meet strong demand from early adopters. As for where it fits in the company’s lineup, it’s positioned above the Cullinan but below the flagship Phantom.

The ultra-luxury British marque has yet to finalize specs, but it has promised a two-motor setup, rated at 577 horsepower (430 kilowatts) and massive 900 Newton meters (664 pound-feet) of torque. Not many Specter owners will test the 0-62 mph (100 km/h) sprint, but RR claims it will take four and a half seconds to get the job done. In terms of range, a fully charged battery has enough energy for about 320 miles (520 kilometers) in the WLTP cycle.