Reporter | Li Wenbo
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On September 29 this year, ultra-luxury automaker Rolls-Royce unveiled its first all-electric mass production model, the "Spectre". For now, the latest development in the car is that the Flash prototype will be road tested under the supervision of Rolls-Royce engineers and launched on the market in the fourth quarter of 2023. By then, the prototype will travel 2.5 million kilometers under all conditions, which Rolls-Royce believes is equivalent to simulating 400 years of actual road use.
Rolls-Royce Motors CEO Torsten Müller-tvs insists there won't be much of a gap between the Production Version of the Shining and the prototype. This means that the Shining will likely make it a viable alternative to the Phantom, which debuted in 2013.
Rolls-Royce has yet to confirm plans to end production of the Phantom, but it pulled the hard-top and soft-top versions out of the U.S. market this year, suggesting that a production suspension is imminent.
Notably, the Phantom is the only production model in the Rolls-Royce lineup that still uses a car-making platform developed entirely by parent company BMW. The larger Mirage, Gusto and Cullinan now use Rolls-Royce's own proprietary platform, which can accommodate a purely electric powertrain and will ultimately support every Rolls-Royce model.
Rolls-Royce showed off the Phantom-based 102EX concept car in 2011, which was designed primarily to confirm the viability of electric motors as an alternative to high-displacement gasoline engines.
The subtle visual difference between this disposable product and the mass-produced product hints at the evolution of Rolls-Royce's approach to design in the electric age. Toston Muller Utfords strongly hinted that although there were no gasoline engines to cool, the company's iconic majestic front grille would also be present in some form.
The more aggressively styled 103EX Concept, released in 2016, provides clues to the direction of Rolls-Royce's EV design plans, and although the Shining adopts a more traditional silhouette, as well as a more production-friendly design, the connection is clear.
Rolls-Royce has always stressed the importance of pure electricity, opposing the trend towards hybrids as transitional products. As a result, it does not electrify its existing powertrain. Toston Müller Utphs promised a "smooth transition" from gasoline to pure electric and promised that the V12 engine would be in use for a "long time."
By 2030, when the company electrifies, gasoline engines will leave, ending 126 years of production of internal combustion engine vehicles.
The Shining will be handcrafted on the same production line as Rolls-Royce's existing models at Goodwood. The company proudly declares that the Shining will not build on the BMW Group's existing models.
Rolls-Royce has not revealed anything about the motor and battery, nor has it confirmed that it will use a powertrain supplied by BMW.
One possible candidate would be the electric drive system used on the BMW iX, which can push a 2.5-ton SUV from stationary to 100 kilometers per hour in about 4.0 seconds. This kind of power is a good fit for Rolls-Royce's first electric car, as it mimics well its smooth, high-performance V12 engine characteristics.
Rolls-Royce is unlikely to rush to profit from BMW's solid-state battery development, which it intends to demonstrate in a demonstration car in 2025 and achieve mass production by the end of the century.