Power-hungry Aussies are paying up for electric Rolls-Royce Spectre

Uber-wealthy Aussies are splashing out on the first Rolls-Royce electric vehicle, the Spectre.

The two-door coupe has only recently been revealed in disguise and won’t be launched until the fourth quarter of 2023.

It will be followed by a succession of battery electric models as the luxury brand makes the transition to electrification for its entire line-up by 2030.

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Rolls-Royce isn’t alone among elite luxury brands in going all-electric, with Bentley revealing more details about its EV future this week.

Rolls-Royce won’t say how many Aussies and have fronted up with their deposits and how much they’ve paid remains confidential.

Pricing for the Spectre is also yet to be announced, but as some form of guide the existing Wraith V12 ICE coupe is $710,000 and the BEV will surely be more expensive.

“We are already taking deposits in Australia for Spectre,” confirmed Rolls-Royce Asia-Pacific regional sales manager Ian Grant.

“We’ve already seen some very keen interest spread around the market areas we look after in Australia, whether it be inner-city living, or whether it be more holiday home living up in the north of Queensland.

“We’ve had deposits from people who have not owned Rolls-Royces before and people who have owned maybe a couple in the past.”

Grant revealed most Australian Rolls-Royce buyers prefer to drive themselves and that was one reason Spectre was proving of interest.

“The people we have been speaking to so far are keen on the immediate power delivery and the driving dynamics,” said Grant.

“And that’s one of the reasons we took the decision to bring our first EV in a two-door model. While EVs are very silent and very comfortable limousines, actually one of the key things our clients were saying is they wanted the driving dynamics of an EV.

“Everyone knows of the immediate power, very fast 0-100km/h times that you can post.”

Grant suggested the Spectre would be a daily driver for many customers. He also confirmed Rolls-Royce would back the car with infrastructure services for buyers.

“When the vehicle is launched there will be a smart charging box available through Rolls-Royce and we will offer consultative services via local suppliers to make sure electric supply in the properties is done at an optimum level,” he said.

Grant confirmed Australian deliveries would commence as soon after the global reveal as possible. Cars will be flown in if necessary, as has happened for past new model releases.

“Q4 2023 is a little bit far away for me to predict the logistics of the world, but we will ensure we bring the vehicle in as soon as possible into the Australian market,” he said.

Little detail has been released about the tech specs of the Spectre but Rolls-Royce has confirmed it will share the fundamental aluminium spaceframe Architecture of Luxury chassis with other more recent models in the range including Ghost, Cullinan and Phantom.

It will likely utilise parent BMW’s battery electric vehicle technology, with a twin or quad motor layout producing at least 1000Nm. Back in 2011 the Phantom-based 102EX tests vehicle made 800Nm, so you can bet that that’s got to be bettered surely.

While enthusiastic about Spectre, Grant was more cautious in his forecasts when it came to the transition of the entire brand to electrification by 2030. He said he was unaware of any backlash to the decision, or of any buying rush for the current V12 powered range.

“I think the mindset will change in the driving behaviour,” he predicted. “I haven’t seen any direct backlash yet [among Rolls-Royce buyers] just questions about range anxiety. But I think that is slowly going to dissipate.”