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By Jonathan Crouch

Rolls-Royce entered the EV era with this Spectre coupe. Jonathan Crouch takes a look at the Series II version.

Ten Second Reviewword count: 56

The Spectre was the car that took Rolls-Royce into a new fully electric era. And in this Series II form, this huge four-door coupe gets faster and longer-ranging. It still delivers a fittingly opulent interpretation of full battery motion for the world's moneyed elite. And excess combines with efficiency to provide a rather unique end result.

Backgroundword count: 227

There isn't anything more logical than an electric Rolls-Royce. Founder Henry Royce trained as an electrical engineer and when at Cambridge, owned an electric car, a US-built Colombia Electric Carriage, a genre of automobile that back in 1900 he predicted would be 'very useful when fixed charging stations can be arranged'. We're still battling with that issue, but it did take rather a long time for Rolls-Royce to bring us an EV, this car, the Spectre coupe, back in 2022. Prior to this model's arrival, the company had been dabbling with the EV idea for decades, back in 2011 producing a one-off electric Phantom called the 120EX to test reaction from customers. Who turned it down on account of its Tesla-derived powerplant's feeble range, slow charging and restricted battery life. So Rolls-Royce spent the whole of this century's second decade working on something better, aided by the might of its BMW parent - and the Spectre was it, a four-seat two-door coupe. It introduced an extended aluminium spaceframe platform intended to underpin all the forthcoming new EVs from the company as it moved towards positioning as an electric-only brand by 2030. The Spectre went on to be the brand's second best seller (surpassing the Phantom and Ghost combustion models) prior to a mid-term update in Summer 2026 that created the car we're going to look at here.

Engines and Tech Specword count: 318

The Series II engineering improvements have brought both more power and more driving range. The standard model's dual-motor AWD powertrain now puts out 593bhp and 1,015Nm of torque (up from 577bhp and 900Nm before). And an even more powerful 'Black Badge' flagship variant has been added to the line-up, offering 670bhp and 1,100Nm of pulling power. As before, think 62mph in just over 4s on the way to 155mph. The 118kWh battery capacity is unchanged but new borrowed BMW 'Gen6' cylindrical cell technology (from the updated i7) means that range is up by 18%, so the Series II Spectre can now cover up to 390 miles on a charge (up from 329 miles before). As you'd expect, progress is almost silent - but doesn't have to be. A selectable artificial sound is available and even if you don't activate it, sound levels are tuned for what the brand calls 'the right kind of silence'. Surprisingly, there are no driving modes: only a 'B' heightened brake regeneration setting to maximise off-throttle energy harvesting. That enables 'one pedal' driving in most circumstances. Rolls-Royce is particularly proud of the Spectre's digitally integrated evolution of the brand's Planar suspension set-up. This is an orchestra of systems with precisely defined responses to driver inputs and road conditions, delivering Rolls-Royce's hallmark 'magic carpet ride'. The Planar system can decouple the car's anti-roll bars, allowing each wheel to act independently, preventing the rocking motion that occurs when one side of a vehicle hits an undulation in the road. This also reduces high-frequency ride imperfections caused by shortcomings in road surface quality. Once a corner is identified as imminent, the Planar system recouples the components and stiffens the dampers, then the four-wheel steering system is then prepared for activation to ensure effortless entry and exit. Under cornering, 18 sensors are monitored, and steering, braking, power delivery and suspension parameters are adjusted so that Spectre remains stable.

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