Rolling Forward

Spectre, a Rolls-Royce 117 years in the making, as envisioned by Henry Royce and Charles Rolls 

- JONATHAN HO

IT MAY COME AS A SURPRISE to many that Henry Royce and Charles Rolls had a documented fascination with all things electric years before they started their car business in 1906. In fact, Royce’s first company produced dynamos and electric crane motors while Rolls, having been inspired in 1900 by an early electric motor car named the Columbia Electric Carriage, envisioned a motoring world with “no noise, smell or vibration” – he famously mused that “they (electric drives) should become very useful when fixed charging stations can be arranged”.

Over 100 years on, we are still struggling with getting our EV charging infrastructure in place after some 80 years dominated by petrochemical engines. But, owned by BMW, Rolls-Royce has been experimenting with electric powertrains since 2011 and what they have is know-how par excellence in spades. On 22 August, Spectre, the first fully electric Rolls-Royce, made its Southeast Asian debut in Singapore, marking a new era for the brand, one closer to the dream of Charles Rolls.