Behind the wheel of one of the most highly anticipated cars in recent memory, from a storied marque renowned for luxuriant silence, I’m being driven to distraction by the noise. An unexpected popping accompanies nearly every curve, as if the door frames are flexing under centripetal force. After I pull off the road, a brief inspection reveals the source: water bottles rolling around the coach doors’ cavernous storage compartments. It’s a sound that would go unnoticed in most vehicles, but inside a cabin that otherwise seems untethered to the external world, it might as well be a brass band. It’s a testament to the ethereal nature of the 584 hp Spectre, the first all-electric automobile in Rolls-Royce’s 117-year history. 

“We started looking into electrification over 10 years ago,” says Torsten Müller-Ötvös, global CEO of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars. “Our clients told us that they thought electrification fit perfectly with the brand—it’s silent, it’s torquey.” Rather than being identified with a particular set of engine notes, the automaker is famous for its absence of combustion noise. But when it came time to actually put an EV into production, Müller-Ötvös adds, clients also demanded a “promise that it’s a Rolls-Royce first, and an electric car second.” 

The design team clearly took that missive to heart. Aesthetically, the two-door four-seater pays homage to its gas-powered predecessors—specifically the 2008 Phantom Coupé, with the same baronial stance and yacht-inspired upright “bow”—but with an even more pronounced fastback profile that contributes to a .25 coefficient of drag, the best yet achieved by the British manufacturer. The interior, though, makes a show of its break with tradition, featuring Goodwood’s first entirely digital dash, plus the debut of the Starlight Door treatment (complementing the now-signature Starlight Headliner) with 4,796 LED lights of its own. And the steering wheel has grown even thicker. 

Other fun bits: Holding the brake pedal shuts the driver’s-side door automatically, and a gentle press of the throttle initiates a smooth forward glide that represents the culmination of over 1.5 million miles and 50,000 hours of testing. At speed, the driving dynamics are surprisingly agile for a vehicle that outweighs the Cullinan SUV by more than 300 pounds. Credit that to the rear-wheel steering and the improvements made to the aluminum space-frame chassis and digitally controlled suspension system, both of which came from the Ghost, Robb Report’s 2021 Luxury Car of the Year. The “Architecture of Luxury” platform now incorporates the nearly 1,543-pound, 102 kWh battery as a structural component along with extruded-aluminum supports that help increase torsional rigidity by 30 percent over the four-door sedan. 

With that additional bolstering, plus a 126.4-inch wheelbase and 23-inch wheels wrapped in Pirelli P Zero rubber, the car feels reassuringly planted even when snaking through the roads around Lake Berryessa, in California’s Napa Valley. The steering is a mix of the familiar and the new: retaining the classic smoothness of a Rolls-Royce, but quicker than expected. Which is not to say that canyon-carving is the model’s forte—the car is nearly 18 feet long and almost 7 feet wide, after all—but the coupe can dance when asked. 

In fact, a spirited press of the throttle brings the Spectre to life, the immediate torque delivery one of the few cues that two electric motors are hard at work, silently launching the behemoth from zero to 60 mph in 4.4 seconds and a top speed (limited) of 155 mph. Another hint: regenerative braking. Activated by a button on the stalk, it allows for one-pedal piloting and adds confidence on twisting descents but feels overly aggressive elsewhere, with no means for adjusting intensity save for switching it off. The only other nit to pick is the lack of rear picnic-table infotainment screens due to seat angle—but then, this zero-emissions machine is unquestionably for drivers and likely to be but one among an owner’s stable. Which is why Rolls-Royce believes that recharging the modest 260-mile range (an EPA estimate) will be done primarily at home with setups that allow for replenishing from 10 percent to 80 percent in 34 minutes with a 195 kW DC fast-charger. 

The Spectre, starting at US$420,000 (HK$3.29 million), with first deliveries expected in Q4 of this year, is arguably the most important luxury vehicle to debut this millennium, managing to significantly reinvent a benchmark automaker without compromising an iota of its character. The smooth, weighty, silent nature of electric driving being what it is, Rolls-Royce was always going to have an easier time than most—but that just goes to show what a remarkably unique driving proposition the brand has always delivered. While being chauffeured to my flight home, as if to prove the point, I ask the driver if he’ll have to recharge soon. Looking quizzically in the rearview, he responds, “We’re in the Ghost.” That’s the genius of the Spectre: It’s a Rolls-Royce first, and an electric car second.