2023 Rolls-Royce Spectre EV Endures 625,000km Of Tests In South France

Hear ye, hear ye. The great and powerful Rolls-Royce would like you all to know that they are testing its newest model and first-ever fully electric vehicle, the 2-door Spectre, in the beautiful riviera region of southern France.

Isn’t it gorgeous? Even with all that somewhat distracting camo-wrap covering the important bits of the exterior, the scenic landscape can only hope to jealously match it for beauty.

We find the car carving up the coastal roads around Miramas, specifically. Clearly, RR expects plenty of its customers to frequent such places, being just a few hours from the border with Monaco and all.

Rolls-Royce Spectre - first full EV

Pre-production Spectres has covered some 625,000km of real-world testing here, which included a visit to the historic Autodrome de Miramas, as part of its global testing program that saw the cars cover a total of some 2.4 million kilometres in various locations with wildly differing, often challenging conditions - much more so than a summer drive along the riviera, of course.

Rolls-Royce has now confirmed the inclusion of a newly-developed intelligent suspension system to deliver the brand’s characteristic otherworldly magic carpet ride, using electronic roll stabilisation and GPS data to predict road surface imperfections (to pre-emptively compensate) and corners for a seamless drive.

Its floor-mounted battery has been constructed as a structural component meaning the Spectre will be 30% more rigid and claimed to be the stiffest chassis ever fitted to a Rolls-Royce. We admit those are not attributes we’re used to associating with their cars.

Despite its imposing size and shape (the doors themselves are 5 feet long), it’s also said to be the most aerodynamic car to come out of the British ultra-luxury marque’s stable with a drag coefficient of just 0.25.

There’s still no word about the car’s all-new electric powertrain or underlying technology, though. This aversion to technical specifications is quite typical of Rolls-Royce, but given we’re still some ways off the car’s official full premiere, we’ll let it slide.

Rolls-Royce Spectre - EV specifications?

Unlike most automakers to which a switch to electrified or fully electric drive in place of internal combustion might sound like a mismatch, the silence and effortless power delivery expected of RR’s cars lend themselves very neatly to powerful zero-emissions powertrains.

We’re also quite certain that much of the EV tech going into the Spectre will be the latest and greatest from parent company BMW, who have been producing and selling some pretty high-profile electric and hybrid vehicles for a significant chunk of time.

Until we hear more, enjoy this selection of pictures that Rolls-Royce has blessed us with.