Rolls-Royce CEO talks about the electric Spectre at its showcase in Italy.
Rolls-Royce is set to begin producing its new Spectre electric coupe for customers in September, at an expected average transaction price of more than half a million euros (AUD$813 million) apiece.
Speaking to Automotive Daily Network partner Autocar at the Villa d’Este Concorso d’Eleganza in Italy – where the luxury EV made its European public debut – Rolls-Royce CEO Torsten Müller-Ötvös revealed that the Spectre’s 2.5 million-kilometre development programme is “more or less completed”, and series production will begin in the autumn.
But because “order intake is far beyond our expectations”, Müller-Ötvös expects that any orders placed now will not be fulfilled until 2025. “Clients are definitely prepared to wait,” he said. “And you normally wait at least a year for a Rolls-Royce, be it a Spectre or whatever else.”
Rolls-Royce has not yet publicised a precise on-the-road price for the electric successor to the Wraith coupé, and though the CEO was not able to give an exact figure based on pre-orders, he did say that based on the extent of personalisation options available through Rolls-Royce’s Bespoke division: “My assumption is that this car will go well beyond €500,000.” “I think clients are keen to spec the car up to the highest levels,” he added.
The firm had earlier suggested that the Spectre would cost around £275,000 (AUD$AUD514,000) before personalisation options were added. In 2022, the Sussex firm’s second consecutive record sales year, it recorded an average transaction price of £430,000 (AUD$804,000), and some variants of the Phantom were sold for more than €2 million (AUD$3.25 million).
Müller-Ötvös also revealed that the Spectre is playing a crucial role in attracting new customers to the Rolls-Royce brand: “We obviously have a lot of clients who are existing owners who ordered one, and we have around 40% of clients we have never seen before in our order books now.”
But he admits to being “pretty surprised about the interest in particular from people who never thought about buying a Rolls-Royce, and are doing it now for the reason that this is the very first full electric car”.
Based on Rolls-Royce’s aluminium Architecture of Luxury platform – and thus unrelated to parent company BMW’s range-topping EVs – the Spectre arrives as part of a rapid-fire electrification initiative that will result in the West Sussex firm phasing out its V12 engine and selling only electric cars from 2030.
Müller-Ötvös previously told Autocar that, in this sense, the Spectre is as important as the 1906 Silver Ghost – Rolls-Royce’s first production effort, hailed by Autocar’s contemporary road testers as “the best car in the world”.
It is “the third pillar” of Rolls-Royce’s line-up in volume terms, slotting in price-wise between the best-selling Rolls-Royce Cullinan SUV and Rolls-Royce Ghost to fill the gap left by the now-retired Dawn and Wraith two-door duo.