Rolls-Royce has announced a landmark moment for the company, the testing of their first electric car has started. The company’s CEO Torsten Müller-Ötvös announced the new car, codenamed “Spectre.” The company aims to fulfil the vision of their founder Charles Rolls’ 1900 prophecy.
Global testing will cover a monstrous 2.5 million Kms or about 400 years of usage. Ötvös as CEO, had promised to bring an electric car to the market this decade, and plans to bring the “Spectre” to market by the fourth quarter of 2023.
Here’s what Ötvös had to say,
“Today is the most significant day in the history of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars since 4th May, 1904. On that date, our founding fathers, Charles Rolls and Sir Henry Royce, first met and agreed that they were going to create ‘the best motor car in the world.
Using the most advanced technology available to them at the time and by applying their remarkable engineering minds, these two pioneers elevated early internal combustion engine cars, from noisy, uncomfortable and rudimentary means of transportation, by setting a completely new benchmark of distinction.
The cars they created, introduced to the world a true luxury experience and secured for Rolls-Royce the ultimate pinnacle position that it continues to occupy, unchallenged, to this day. The marque has continued to define the very best in internal combustion motoring for more than a century.
Today, 117 years later, I am proud to announce that 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. 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.”
The company also harked back to the days of their founders, Sir Henry Royce and Charles Rolls. Royce was fascinated by all things electric, though it was Rolls who envisioned an electric future for cars. Considering how currently RR has no hybrid models in their lineup currently, this is a massive step in a new direction for the company.
The company intends on building the car with Rolls’ signature “Spaceframe” architecture, first seen on the 2017 Phantom. The company promises to uphold the same quality and beauty it is synonymous with, and will ensure that the vision of their founding fathers is fulfilled.
Such a bold decision is not an easy one to take, though if anyone can pull it off, it’s Rolls-Royce.
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