2024 Rolls-Royce Spectre EV confirmed for Australia, due late 2023

UPDATE, January 28: Rolls-Royce has confirmed its first electrified vehicle – the Spectre – will be bound for Australia when it launches quarter four 2023.

Speaking at a press conference for the launch of the new Black Badge Ghost this week, Ian Grant, regional sales manager for the Asia Pacific region, said there was a lot of interest in the brand's upcoming EV and the company had already started taking deposits.

"Customers are putting money down, people who have not owned a Rolls Royce before (and those who have had a couple in the past).

"There is no better brand in the world to become electrified. The silent waft-ability you get from a Rolls-Royce suits it perfectly. Our customers have told us they want the driving dynamics of an EV – the instant power, the very fast 0-100 times."

On why the luxury carmaker has decided to go fully-electric with the Spectre, rather than initially introduce a hybrid vehicle, Grant added it would have been a "half step" and "isn't very Rolls-Royce".

Australia is expected to be a key market for the Spectre, although interest is also understood to be strong in other parts of the region, such as Thailand.

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September 30: Rolls-Royce has revealed its plans to build an electric vehicle in the coming years, announcing the Spectre will be its first.

Set to launch in 2024, 120 years after Charles Rolls and Henry Royce formed the company, Spectre will be the first of many Rolls-Royce electric vehicles – with the manufacturer also announcing it will move away from internal combustion engines completely by 2030.

Shown off in uniquely camouflaged production body panels, it seems the Spectre will retain the rear-hinge doors and general design language from the current Rolls-Royce fleet, such as the Wraith and Dawn.

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CEO Torsten Müller-Ötvös said the Spectre will continue to deliver the level of luxury Rolls-Royce owners expect from their vehicles,

"I am proud to announce Rolls-Royce is to begin the on-road testing programme for an extraordinary new product that will elevate the global all-electric car revolution and create the first – and finest – super-luxury product of its type," said Müller-Ötvös.

"This is not a prototype. It’s the real thing, it will be tested in plain sight and our clients will take first deliveries of the car in the fourth quarter of 2023.

"We embark on this bold new future with a huge advantage. Electric drive is uniquely and perfectly suited to Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, more so than any other automotive brand. It is silent, refined and creates torque almost instantly, going on to generate tremendous power. This is what we at Rolls-Royce call ‘waftability’.

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"Over the past decade, I have been repeatedly asked, ‘When will Rolls-Royce go electric?’ and ‘When will you produce your first electric car?’

“I answered with an unambiguous promise: ‘Rolls-Royce will go electric, starting this decade.’ Today, I’m keeping my word.”

Set to be based on Rolls-Royce's scalable aluminium architecture, the manufacturer claims it will undertake more than 2.5 million kilometres of real-world testing to shake down the Spectre, utilising its own platform rather than adopting one from parent company BMW Group.

The first deliveries of the Spectre are expected to arrive in the fourth quarter of 2023.

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