For Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, naming “Spectre” for the company’s first electric car based in Goodwood, West Sussex, England, United Kingdom is a long process.
Quoted from the official Rolls-Royce Motor Cars release as received by Suara.com, choosing a name for the latest and first electric-powered Rolls-Royce car is a very important process. Highly considered, even exhausting, where the brand’s unique heritage plays a central role.
“Despite being separated by nearly a century, the Spectre name was used by Rolls-Royce in the 1930s and ours today is the proving ground for propulsion technology that will shape our product and client experiences for decades to come,” said Torsten Müller-Ötvös, Chief Executive Officer, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars.
Of the current Rolls-Royce product family, all but Cullinan–named after the largest gem-quality rough diamond ever discovered–have names derived from earlier products. Namely Phantom, Ghost, Dawn, and Wraith. All share the same name in Rolls-Royce’s 118-year history.
So, in naming its first battery-electric vehicle, Rolls-Royce sought to maintain and strengthen this important genetic link. It also marks a definitive shift into new areas defined by innovation and progress.
“There is a symmetry between the Spectreof the past and the incarnation of the present in the Spectre electric car. In our history, the Spectreis a name synonymous with technical innovation and development, and it is Rolls-Royce cars that continue to change the world,” continued Torsten Müller-Ötvös.
In a brief history of the presence of the name “Spectre” premiered between 1905 and 1913 was the Rolls-Royce The Silver Ghost, created for the 1907 London Motor Show. It is based on the Rolls-Royce Phantom.
It was later adopted for the Rolls-Royce The Silver Spectre, a 1601 chassis built in August 1910. This was the first use of the Spectre name recorded in the company’s archives.
The 1601 chassis was sold to the War Office in 1915 and was last known to exist in an automotive industry company in Sheffield in 1933.
Next was the Rolls-Royce Phantom III Spectre experimental project which was carried out from 1934-1937. Chassis codes are suffixed with “EX” and continue for high-power or high-horsepower products. Including the development of a V12 engine and independent suspension.
To keep this exciting work secret, the chassis coded for the V12 engine as 30EX and codenamed “Spectre”. And finally in the production version incarnated as the Rolls-Royce Phantom III in 1936.
Now, Rolls-Royce’s first all-electric electric car, the Spectre , represents a bold and very significant change. Both technically and philosophically.
The name Spectre itself sits next to Ghost, Phantom, and Wraith as an awakening of silence, subtlety, and mystery.
