Rolls-Royce Spectre EV Deliveries Could Be Delayed Up to 2 Years

Like many other European-based automakers out there, Rolls-Royce is finally jumping onto the electric bandwagon by launching its first all-electric model, the Rolls-Royce Spectre. 

RR’s first-ever luxury EV model turns out to be a hit amongst many wealthy folks out there, with its demand skyrocketing beyond the marque’s expectations. This, in turn, resulted in a delivery delay, which can take up to two years, which is beyond the targeted 12- to 15 months waiting period set by Rolls-Royce.

Speaking to InsideEVs during the Concorso D’Eleganza Villa D’Este auto festival, Rolls-Royce CEO Torsten Müller-Ötvös said, “If you would order today, you probably will take delivery in 2025. Our intention [is 15 months], yeah? Mid to long term we might see spikes, obviously, but my intention is not that our clients need to wait many years until they take delivery of one of our products.”

“Clients don't appreciate, in the luxury segment, waiting times over two years, three years, four years, five years, or even let's say, like, ‘We are sold out even before the car is on the ground,’ or whatever. I think that is by all means bad production planning, nothing else,” the CEO added.

Earlier this year, Rolls-Royce revealed that they’ve received so many orders for the Spectre that a production facility expansion was being considered in order to fulfil them on time. The CEO previously said that the Spectre will be the third ‘volume model’ by the automaker, aside from the Cullinan and Ghost.

Prior to the Spectre, Rolls-Royce have been playing with EV concept for years, with the 102EX and 103EX concept EVs teached the marque a great lesson in adopting electromobility. Unlike the two failed concepts, the Spectre is developed with clients’ feedback in mind.

“We learned a lot about range. We learned a lot about charging times [with the concepts],” Müller-Ötvös said. “It was clear that we don't need to be number one with outrageous range or whatever, but a range of 500 kilometres (311 miles) is totally sufficient for our clients.”

The Rolls-Royce Spectre underpins the Architecture of Luxury platform with the battery pack being integrated within the aluminium space frame. The marque claims that the Spectre can go as far as 520 KM on a single charge, with its sizable battery pack juices the 557 HP and 900 NM-rated electric motor setup. This setup grants the Spectre with a 0-100 KM/H sprint time finish of only 4.5 seconds.

Aside from the peppy electric motor, the car’s unique exterior design also helps in boosting its performance, as the Spectre is the most aerodynamically-efficient RR ever, according to Müller-Ötvös. For Rolls-Royce’s standard, the Spectre design is somewhat ‘radical’, albeit the CEO tried to retain some of the brand’s iconic design cues such as the Pantheon front grille.

“Our clear decision was we want to keep the Pantheon grille because it is such a significant piece of Rolls-Royce,” Müller-Ötvös explained. But “[this] grille is very different from what we have ever seen before on a Rolls-Royce. The vanes are shaped in a way that the wind circles perfectly around the car and no longer goes in for cooling purposes as it used to be.”