The Electric Rolls Royce Spectre is Ridiculous!

Summary

The script provides an enthusiastic review of the new 2024 Rolls-Royce Spectre, a $500,000 fully electric luxury coupe. It focuses on the extremely quiet and smooth ride quality enabled by the custom suspension and extensive sound insulation. Other highlights noted are the high-end materials, purple exterior paint, starlight headliner, and ridiculous options like $1,775 for a black umbrella. While the range could improve, the reviewer considers it the best Rolls yet for delivering an unparalleled luxury experience far beyond other high-end vehicles.

Takeaways

• 😲 The Rolls-Royce Spectre is a $500,000, fully electric luxury coupe with over 500 horsepower.
• 💎 The Spectre focuses on being extremely quiet and smooth, with features like a customizable suspension system.
• 👌 The interior has incredibly high-end materials like soft leather and lambswool carpets.
• 🔇 The Spectre is likely the quietest car ever made - you can barely hear anything at highway speeds.
• ⛽ It has around 200 miles of real-world range. More than any luxury sedan needs but less than other EVs.
• 💰 The test car has $120,000 in optional extras like custom paint, wheels, and umbrella.
• 🌌 It has Rolls-Royce's signature starlight headliner and now starlight in the doors too.
• 🏎️ The acceleration and braking are very smooth and gradual for a luxury experience.
• 🚘 It drives smaller than its size thanks to rear-wheel steering.
• 👍 Doug DeMuro explains that the huge price jump over a regular luxury sedan is to reach an extra level of quality.

Q & A

What kind of vehicle is the Rolls-Royce Spectre?

The Rolls-Royce Spectre is a fully electric luxury coupe.

How much horsepower and torque does the Rolls-Royce Spectre have?

The Rolls-Royce Spectre has 577 horsepower and over 600 lb-ft of torque.

What makes the ride quality so smooth in the Rolls-Royce Spectre?

The Rolls-Royce Spectre uses a Planar Suspension system that decouples the anti-roll bars, allowing each wheel to act independently for a smooth, cloud-like ride.

What makes the Rolls-Royce Spectre interior so quiet?

The Rolls-Royce Spectre uses double-pane windows, hundreds of pounds of sound insulation, and other noise isolation methods to create an extremely quiet cabin.

How much range can you expect from the Rolls-Royce Spectre?

Rolls-Royce rates the Spectre at 260 miles of range, but in cold weather it is closer to 190-200 miles.

What is the base price of the Rolls-Royce Spectre?

The base price of the Rolls-Royce Spectre starts at $420,000.

What is the most expensive optional extra on the Rolls-Royce Spectre?

The most expensive optional extra is the custom two-tone exterior paint, which adds over $20,000 to the price.

What charging standard does the Rolls-Royce Spectre use?

The Rolls-Royce Spectre uses CCS for charging.

Why does the Rolls-Royce Spectre have a 'fake' grille?

Since it is an electric vehicle, the Rolls-Royce Spectre does not need a grille for cooling. However, the grille is part of the traditional Rolls-Royce styling, so the Spectre includes a non-functional faux grille.

How does the price of the Rolls-Royce Spectre compare to other luxury electric sedans?

At over $500,000 when fully optioned, the Rolls-Royce Spectre is far more expensive than comparably sized electric luxury sedans like the BMW i7 or Mercedes EQS.

Outlines

00:00

😲 Introducing the Rolls-Royce Spectre EV

Paragraph 1 introduces the Rolls-Royce Spectre, a fully electric luxury sedan coupe with 577 horsepower, 600+ lb-ft torque, 0-60 mph in the low 4s, 23-inch wheels, and 260 miles of range. It weighs nearly 7,000 pounds but has a decoupled suspension for a smooth "cloud boat" ride. The Spectre exemplifies Rolls-Royce's focus on softness and quietness, from the double-pane glass to hundreds of pounds of sound insulation.

05:01

☁️ The softest, quietest Rolls-Royce ever

Paragraph 2 elaborates on the Spectre's extremely soft suspension, steering, and acceleration/deceleration tuning which completely masks speed and makes highway travel whisper-quiet. The cabin isolation is so impressive you can have hushed conversations at high speeds. Rolls has promised their lineup will be fully electric by 2030.

10:01

💸 $500k+ in options on the press car

Paragraph 3 runs through some of the extravagant options on the $540,000 press car, like the $13k paint job, $10k wheels, and $4.8k colored seat piping. It also covers some hi-tech features like drive recording and an intelligent voice assistant.

Keywords

💡Electric

The Rolls-Royce Spectre is a fully electric luxury sedan. Its electric drivetrain is a core part of its identity and a sign of the automotive industry's shift towards electrification. The video emphasizes how an electric powertrain enhances the typical strengths of a Rolls-Royce luxury sedan - it's even quieter and smoother without the noise and vibration of a traditional gas engine.

💡Luxury

Luxury is central to Rolls-Royce's brand identity. The Spectre exemplifies traditional luxury ideals like comfort, exclusivity, premium materials, and attention to detail. The video describes luxury touches like the starry headliner, soft lambswool carpets, and double-pane windows.

💡Quiet

The video repeatedly emphasizes the Spectre's extremely quiet cabin. The sound deadening materials make it the quietest car the host has ever experienced, allowing whispered conversations at highway speeds. This quietness enhances the luxury experience.

💡Smooth

The Spectre prioritizes delivering the smoothest possible driving experience. This applies to the acceleration, suspension, steering and overall ride quality. The video praises the smoothness of the throttle response and braking in particular.

💡Expensive

As a Rolls-Royce, the Spectre is an extremely expensive vehicle with a starting price of $420,000. The video details some absurdly priced options like $13,000 for the exterior paint and $1,775 for a black umbrella. This highlights the exclusive luxury positioning.

💡Technology

The Spectre includes various technology features new to Rolls-Royce like wireless CarPlay, touchscreens, remote cameras and built-in voice control. The video seems pleasantly surprised by the integration of this tech into the old-world luxury experience.

💡Electric vehicle

The Spectre represents Rolls-Royce's first all-electric vehicle. The video expresses excitement about this direction for the brand and notes how smoothly it meshes with the traditional Rolls-Royce strengths of comfort and quietness.

💡Luxury sedan

The Spectre follows the classic Rolls-Royce format of a large, elegant 4-door luxury sedan (or coupe). The video suggests this body style benefits especially well from electrification compared to sportscars or SUVs.

💡Suspension

The Spectre has a bespoke suspension system designed to deliver an ultra-smooth ride. Features like the decoupled anti-roll bars isolate the body from road imperfections. This enhances the sense of wafting along like a cloud.

💡Interior features

Much of the video focuses on the Spectre's opulent interior features like the quilted leather seats, starry headliner, lambswool carpets, and umbrella compartment. These details represent Rolls-Royce's obsession with craftsmanship and pampering occupants.

Highlights

The Rolls-Royce Spectre is a fully electric luxury sedan with 577 horsepower and 600+ pound feet of torque.

The Spectre has a customized suspension system called Planar Suspension that makes the ride extremely soft and smooth.

The acceleration and braking are tuned to be extremely gradual for a smooth, limousine-like driving experience.

The Spectre is likely the quietest car ever built, with double-pane windows and hundreds of pounds of sound insulation.

The interior materials like leather and carpeting are exceptionally high-quality and soft.

Rolls-Royce will transition their full lineup to electric vehicles by 2030, starting with the Spectre.

The Spectre is very conservatively rated for range, typically achieving around 190 miles in cold weather driving.

The Spectre has drive recording capabilities with cameras all around the vehicle.

The car tested has over $120,000 in options, including a $13,100 paint job.

The purple seat piping costs an extra $4,800 and the stitching is $2,500 more.

The Rolls-Royce umbrella is free, but getting it in black costs $1,775 extra.

The jump from a regular luxury sedan to a Rolls-Royce is not linear - you pay a lot more for that extra level of luxury.

The Spectre likely has the softest suspension, steering, acceleration and braking of any 500+ hp luxury vehicle.

The starlight headliner comes standard, but starlight in the doors is a $13,300 upgrade.

The Spectre matches extreme luxury and smoothness with strong electric vehicle performance.

Transcripts

- All right, so this thing behind me, this,

this is the Rolls-Royce Spectre.

This is a ridiculously expensive, fully electric,

gigantic luxury sedan.

It's crazy. It doesn't make any sense.

But at the same time,

actually, it does like make a lot of sense.

It makes perfect sense.

So you're gonna have to hear me out with this one.

So yeah, if we're just talking about on the surface here,

this thing is wild.

It's a giant luxury sedan,

or I guess technically, it's a coupe because...

(birds cawing)

All right, I'm gonna need y'all to...

(birds cawing)

I need y'all to chill.

It's a coupe because it has two doors,

but it also has four seats,

but 577 horsepower, 600 plus pound feet of torque.

The thing weighs nearly 7,000 pounds,

nearly as much as the Rivian R1T,

but it also does zero to 60 in the low fours.

It has a ton of power in a straight line,

and it gets about 260 miles of range on a full charge.

But the thing is, and you probably already see

where this is going, you've heard me talk

about luxury sedans before.

What more perfect vehicle could there be to go electric?

If I want a luxury sedan, what do I want?

I want it to be big, smooth, quiet, lots of space.

And it's probably gonna be heavy and expensive,

but comes with the territory.

This would be the quietest, smoothest, softest,

with the most space Rolls-Royce ever built.

Rolls-Royce knows that too.

They have promised that their entire lineup

will be electric by 2030.

So I feel like I was right.

So they're starting with this one.

This Spectre essentially, it's a BMW i7 battery

and motors underneath, but with the custom suspension

and Rolls-Royce up top, and it's $500,000,

and I'll get to the price in a minute.

But even with as much as we have going on with this car,

there is a pretty constant theme through the whole car

for me pretty clearly.

And that is soft.

This is the softest car

that you can buy,

everything about it from the suspension,

which I'll talk about in a second,

to the way it drives, the super soft steering,

the seats you sit in, the super soft leather

and materials inside,

the floor mats are incredibly soft, lambswool.

But then even the things like the acceleration

and deceleration are mapped to the pedal

to be super smooth and soft.

Just the whole thing, super soft.

So let's get to the inside of this Rolls-Royce

because it's a Rolls-Royce

and where else would you wanna be?

But also because it's freezing outside.

I gotta start with this.

You've seen Rolls-Royces before, right?

The door opens from the front here

and yeah, okay, we've seen this before.

Let's get in, put our foot on the brake

and as soon as I put my foot on the brake,

this door will close itself

(door clicking)

softly.

So this is a pretty iconic view just 'cause there's...

You can't really see it when it's bright like this,

but the stars above me right now in the headliner.

But the first thing you notice getting into this car

is great, high-quality materials and also very soft.

I'm sitting in a very, very soft leather seat.

But even look at this stuff.

(clinking sound)

This turns so smoothly and so softly.

And if you wanna stop the airflow,

you just push that.

That's sick.

The way all the HVAC controls are set up,

you can change the temperature of the top

and bottom just by doing that.

I want it to be warm. So I'm over here.

You can set the airflow to be super high

or super soft.

And then under the wood trim and everything,

I don't know if you're able to appreciate this,

but this carpeting down here looks kind of messy

but this is the softest carpet

I've ever seen in a car.

Allegedly it's lambswool.

At least that's what it says on the option sheet

but that is soft.

But really, truly the special thing to me about this car

is actually driving it, which you might not think

about a gigantic Rolls-Royce like this.

But three things.

One, the suspension is unbelievably soft.

They actually have a feature,

so it's a special customized suspension from Rolls-Royce.

It's called the Planar Suspension system.

Basically, it decouples the anti-roll bars

when driving in a straight line.

So each wheel acts independently.

So when you're driving in a straight line

and like one of the wheels hits a pothole,

the entire car doesn't sort of waft and wobble over it.

It's just that one wheel that hits it

or maybe the two left side wheels or something like that.

It gives it this cloud boat-like feeling.

It really masks speed super well, just like the Maybach.

You'll have no idea how slow or how fast you're going.

You're just sort of floating along like you're on a cloud.

Secondly, somehow even the acceleration

and steering are soft.

I mean this is a gigantic steering wheel,

really, really big car

but it does have rear wheel steers so you can sort

of nimbly get around.

But this is one of the rare cars with 500 plus horsepower

that you don't really ever feel like you need

to use it or floor it.

You don't really feel inspired

to go fast or anything like that.

It's so soft.

The acceleration and deceleration tuning from the pedal

is incredibly gradual, especially off the line.

When you turn on regenerative braking

by hitting the bee pedal on this little stalk here,

when you let your foot off the brake,

it basically does a limo stop.

It slows all the way down to almost zero

and then just barely eases you into a stop.

It's so smooth.

And then, of course, off the line, same thing.

You can stamp it off of a light,

but you're not gonna spin tires and slam your head back.

It doesn't wanna do that.

It wants to roll you into power and it's so good at it.

And then three, last but definitely not least,

the most impressive part

is this is the quietest car I have ever sat in in my life.

It's crazy quiet in this cabin.

So you've got windows that roll down

and they are double pane thick glass.

And you can hear that there's a difference as soon

as you roll the window down, all that outside noise.

When you roll all the windows up,

you are isolated in a cabin that feels truly impressive.

There's apparently hundreds of pounds

of noise-isolating material in here.

You can't hear the road,

you don't even hear much wind at all.

You don't hear the drive train.

And if there are other cars around you,

if there are trucks on the road, you just don't hear them.

You can have whisper quiet conversations

at highway speed in this car.

It's so quiet.

I've never driven a car this quiet.

This is on 23-inch wheels.

That should be impossible.

What?

This isn't even a smooth road.

How is it this quiet?

And like, there are speakers all over the cabin of this car.

It's got this bespoke $11,000 speaker system

and I'm gonna get to the price stuff in a second.

But yes, it sounds amazing,

but it's not because it's some $11,000

amazing speaker system;

it's because it's so quiet in here,

you hear everything over the top of normal road noise,

you hear more bass and sub bass,

you hear more instrument separation

'cause you're in a very quiet room.

Now, the rest of the driving experience

you can kind of treat like normal.

It's got cameras around the car, which is nice.

It has wireless CarPlay, which is cool.

It's rated for 260 miles of range.

And in cold weather like this, it's really closer

to 200, maybe 190.

But what I do like is it's very conservative

with your range estimates.

So if it says you can get 150 miles,

you can actually get 150 miles and be comfortable with it.

So it's kind of like Rivian in that way.

I think that's nice.

So then, okay, two things I wanna show you

about the tech in this car

that I didn't expect to be that good,

but they are actually.

So first of all, there's two screens up here.

There's one in the middle,

which is where your wireless CarPlay can go

and the normal built-in software.

And then there's also the screen behind the steering wheel.

I don't love this one,

especially because I don't love the power reserve

where it counts down from 100 as you accelerate.

I mean, either way, this is the normal software screen

and yeah, wireless CarPlay is great and it's a touchscreen

and you can actually move around with this little dial here

with the Spirit of Ecstasy on it to move around

through the software.

So that's great that that works.

But the first cool thing is on this gigantic steering wheel,

there is this voice assistant button,

which if you have CarPlay going, it will trigger Siri.

But if you don't,

it will trigger the car's built-in voice assistant,

which is tied to the microphone right above your head

or right above the passenger's head.

And when you press it,

it'll let you change things like the volume of the music

or Bluetooth or whatever.

And it worked, which is nice.

But the second thing is built into this tech here,

and I go into this little menu.

Drive Recorder.

I didn't expect this, but you can actually go in

and through all the cameras around the car,

set up dashcam recordings

from when you hit the Record button.

It'll record before you hit, it'll record after you hit.

And you can always see what's going on

around your car in pretty decently high quality too,

and it stores it.

It's got all these different cameras around the car for you

to keep track of what happened, an accident.

I mean, a car this expensive,

I would wanna be able to see everything.

So I'm glad it has that. I didn't expect that.

Good job, Rolls-Royce.

Now, I know you're not supposed

to talk about options and prices on a car like this

because if you're asking the question,

you probably can't afford it.

But this is a video and it's fun anyway, so let's do that

'cause there's a lot of crazy prices with this car.

First of all, the starting price is $420,000.

That's already pretty expensive.

This car, MSRPs, with its options

at $540,000.

So the car has almost $120,000 of options.

Let's check out some of the highlights.

So this gorgeous Barney,

or I mean, sorry, twilight purple color.

Sorry, there's a ton of salt on it and that's not my fault.

The roads look crazy in New Jersey,

but this purple color here, this is a $13,100 paint job.

And then this satin silver in the middle,

'cause you got this little two-tone look going on,

pretty signature Rolls-Royce look,

but that satin silver is an extra $9,525.

Then these wheels here,

these are the optional 23-inch wheels.

They're a little bigger,

they're gonna hit your range a little bit

but you know, if they look sick

and you like the seven-spoke thing,

you can get 'em for $10,675.

And by the way, the fact that it rides this soft

on 23-inch wheels with low profile tires is crazy to me.

Now, the stars in the headliner we already know about,

that comes standard, thankfully for free in the Rolls-Royce,

but the starlight in the doors,

well, that'll cost you $13,300 extra.

Totally worth it though.

Now, this interior is pretty serious

and it matches the outside of the car very much so

with this two-one look.

the Arctic white leather finish is gonna run you $5,975.

And then the purple seat piping,

yes, the purple piping, that's $4,800 more.

And the colored stitching in purple is a nice little touch

that will cost you 2,500 more dollars.

But I think probably my favorite of them all

is the iconic Rolls-Royce umbrella

that comes with every car.

That's free.

And it's right here.

If you haven't already heard of it,

Rolls-Royces all have this little umbrella in the door

so you never have to get wet

when you get out of your Rolls-Royce.

But to get the canopy color of the umbrella in black,

well, you'll have to pay $1,775 just for that.

But I mean, if you're gonna matte black everything,

you might as well get the black canopy.

That'll cost you.

So the list goes on.

Like I mentioned, $120,000 total in options in this car.

And for that price,

you could literally get a whole nother car.

You could get a BMW i7 for that price,

which is pretty hilarious.

But if you're asking me, I'm no expert,

but I'm still calling this my favorite Rolls-Royce ever.

Fully electric.

Look at that, nice little magnetizing

to get into your subtrunk with your charging cable.

Pop that down.

Nice real trunk. Big spacious car.

And I like the taillights here.

And I also like this little charge port

on the right-hand side.

Pop that open, big door.

I wonder if they're gonna go CCS to NACS at some point

'cause that's kind of the biggest complaint

with this car is only 260 miles of range is not huge.

But at the end of the day,

I really like what Doug DeMuro said about this car.

He's reviewed the Spectre as well.

And the difference between a regular luxury car

and a $500,000 Rolls is it's a level up

that takes a lot of extra money to get to.

Like you don't need more than an S-Class.

You don't need more luxury than a $100,000 electric car

or any sort of luxury sedan

but if you do want an actual level up over those standards,

the price isn't just linear.

The price goes up like this.

That's when you end up with this fake grille

'cause it's electric but everything

(metallic tapping sound)

that sounds so nice, and the lambswool carpets,

and the extreme level of sound deadening,

and the incredibly quiet interior,

and everything being so soft, that's how you get

to the level up is by spending quite a bit more.

So yeah, I'm not ever gonna buy a car like this,

but I'm glad I got to experience it

because experiencing it is way better

than just seeing it in a video.

Actually sitting in the car and driving at highway speed

and whispering and being able to hear it is crazy.

So I'm impressed.

I'm impressed that they got to pull off all of that

and actually sell to real people.

Maybe the next one will have a little more range

and maybe NACS.

Anyway, that's it. Thanks for watching.

Catch you guys in the next one. Peace.