The All-Electric Rolls-Royce Spectre Undergoes Second Testing Phase in French Riviera

By Adrienne Faurote July 28, 2022

Rolls-Royce Motor Cars takes yet another step toward their commitment to being a fully electric motor car brand by the year 2030.

Photo Credit: Rolls-Royce Motor Cars

Earlier this year, Spectre went through its first “lessons” at a bespoke testing facility in Arjeplog, Sweden. The finishing school, located a mere 55km away from the Arctic Circle, is custom designed to teach the motor car how to behave and react like a Rolls-Royce. Over the past months, the marque’s test and development engineers have shifted their focus from extreme conditions to more formal scrutiny in a location that reflects the motor car’s everyday use: the French Riviera.

Spectre will be the first all-electric super-luxury motor car with continental touring central to its proposition. The French Riviera and its roads present a perfect combination of the types of conditions that will be demanded from Spectre’s clients, ranging from technical coastal corniches to faster inland carriageways. A total of 625,000 km will be driven on and around the French Côte d’Azur. This will comprise a crucial part of Spectre’s 2.5 million km global testing program.

This second testing phase is split into two parts, the first of which begins at the historic Autodrome de Miramas proving ground, located in the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône in Provence. The track incorporates more than 60 km of closed routes and 20 test track environments that provide a vast number of testing opportunities over its 1,198-acre footprint. The second part of testing in the region occurs in the Provençal countryside surrounding the Autodrome de Miramas. This region is enjoyed by many of the marque’s clients, therefore a significant 55% of testing here has taken place on the very roads that many production Spectres will be driven on following first customer deliveries in the fourth quarter of 2023.

Photo Credit: Rolls-Royce Motor Cars

“It is no exaggeration to state that Spectre is the most anticipated Rolls-Royce ever,” said Torsten Müller-Ötvös, CEO of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars. “Free from the restrictions connected to the internal combustion engine, our battery-electric vehicle will offer the purest expression of the Rolls-Royce experience in the marque’s 118-year history. This latest testing phase proves a suite of advanced technologies that underpin a symbolic shift for Rolls-Royce as it progresses towards a bright, bold, all-electric future. This will secure the ongoing relevance of our brand for generations to come.”

Spectre is unlike any Rolls-Royce before it. This is not merely due to its all-electric power train, but unprecedented computing power and application of advanced data-processing technologies. Spectre features 141,200 sender-receiver relations and has more than 1,000 functions and more than 25,000 sub functions. This is around three times more sender-receiver signals than a typical Rolls-Royce.

Photo Credit: Rolls-Royce Motor Cars

“Spectre unlocks the extraordinary potential of integrating a fully electric powertrain into our Architecture of Luxury platform,” said Dr. Mihiar Ayoubi, Director of Engineering for Rolls-Royce Motor Cars. “From this engineering starting point, our testing and refinement processes combine empirical data and human experience, intuition and insights acquired over more than a century to refine the motor car’s driving dynamics and character. In coordinating this orchestra of systems with precisely defined responses to driver inputs and road conditions, made possible by the latest software and hardware developments, Spectre delivers the Rolls-Royce experience in exceptionally high definition.”

In announcing the redesigned Spirit of Ecstasy mascot that will sit proudly at the prow of Spectre, Rolls-Royce aerodynamicists predicted that the motor car would have a drag coefficient of just 0.26, making it the most aerodynamic Rolls-Royce ever created. Following rigorous wind tunnel testing, digital modelling and continuous high-speed testing in Miramas, this figure has been further reduced to just 0.25. This does not just represent a record in the context of Rolls-Royce, but is unprecedented in the luxury sector.

Photo Credit: Rolls-Royce Motor Cars

The Spectre global testing program continues. The Electric Super Coupé will still be tested for another one million km before the marque’s engineers will consider this undertaking complete. First customer deliveries of Spectre will begin in the fourth quarter of 2023.