Spectre Black Badge review: Can Rolls-Royce make a sporty electric car?
It wasn’t until BMW took on Rolls-Royce that the brand deigned to share how much power its engines made. Right up to the late 1990s, it told that us its cars had “adequate” power and left it at that.
If you would like just one example of how far it has moved since then, note that it isn’t only declaring that the new Black Badge variant of the Spectre electric coupé is “the most powerful Rolls-Royce in history”, owing to its 485kW (650hp), but that during the launch of this car, its accelerative capabilities were demonstrated on a race track.
Nonetheless, the Black Badge is still, we’re assured by CEO Chris Brownridge, “a true Rolls-Royce”. It’s just that a new set of customers have come to the brand lately, wanting their Rollers to be a bit more “subversive”, choosing themes that are “darker or more vibrant” than is traditional.
Goodwood initially made that possible through bespoke programmes, then made Black Badge a part of its regular range.
This meaner Spectre was in the plan from the start, then, but still 25 early ‘clandestine’ ones were made with the technical package so that some customers could test them under the radar ahead of launch and report back. Not necessary, one would think, but you can imagine it feels quite special to be asked.
“They had a car that didn’t exist for six months,” as Brownridge puts it. Selling 5000-6000 cars a year and with no particular ambition to increase that, Rolls-Royce is basically in the business of making customers feel special.
Here we are now with the Spectre Black Badge in production form. The changes are partly visual, partly engineered.
The visible ones are a new wheel design, the ‘dark chrome’ exterior aesthetic, illuminated kickplates and carbonfibre trim.
A new violet paint colour redolent of ’80s and ’90s nightclub culture can feature too, although, this being a Rolls-Royce, you can basically have what elements you want and virtually anything else besides.
The engineering changes are partly software, partly hardware. Although the increased power is the headline-grabber, the car starts in a conventional drive mode, with 430kW (577hp) as per the standard Spectre; thumbing a steering-wheel button marked with the infinity symbol opens up the additional 55kW (73hp).
With Infinity mode selected, standing on the brake and throttle pedals when stationary induces a gentle shimmy into the motors, shaking the body to let you know that Spirited mode – or launch control by any other name – is engaged, which gives 1075Nm (793lb ft) of torque and a 0-100km/h (0-62mph) time of 4.1sec (instead of 4.5sec).
More notable more often is that Infinity mode also weightens the steering slightly and sharpens the throttle response, although it’s still not like the response of, say, a fast Tesla or a Porsche Taycan.
Rolls-Royces, not even Spectres, are not made for whipcrack EV responses, and this is still a 5.5m-long, 2.9-tonne, super- luxury coupé. So when you give it full throttle on the straight of a track, acceleration comes like a lightly laden airliner gathering speed.
It’s totally on-brand: this is how a V12 engine would like to feel. But Spectres, even Black Badge ones, will live on the road, and the ride and handling remains on message here too.
The body control feels tighter, and yet I’d challenge anyone to say it doesn’t ride well enough.
It’s entirely absorbent. Some slackness of body movements that I remember at middling speeds, 40-60mph, on undulating roads, don’t seem present. But despite some hardware changes to reduce pitch, this is still a car allowed to move around luxuriously, not over-loosely.
It’s also very quiet, perhaps obviously, unless you’re playing with the fake sounds, which accompany acceleration until they get tiresome and you turn them off. Thereafter hands sliding on the steering wheel are usually the loudest thing inside (chauffeurs train to feed the wheel between fingers for this reason).
The interior is opulent – and when carbonfibre is chosen, it’s because of how Rolls-Royce makes the weave look, rather than any pretence at weight reduction.
The steering wheel’s rim is made 3mm thicker to give a slightly beefier feel. With big, flat seats and the finest materials you will find in any new car around you, a high windowline, a bonnet that stretches for miles and the footprint of most double-cab pick-ups, it feels odd to describe the Spectre, like any other Rolls-Royce, as a driver’s car, but I do find them enjoyable to drive: the pedal weightings are right for stopping and starting gently, the steering delicately accurate and responsive.
This one will go a bit faster and more controlled than the standard Spectre, but everything likeable about that remains likeable here.
Black Badge adds a little bit of edge, some extra pace and around 20% extra cost to Rolls’ EV while giving very little away.
Move Electric’s verdict: 9/10
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