Electric Rolls-Royce Spectre Could Be Louder Than A V12

Oct. 19, 2021 1:08 PM ET byJay Traugott Luxury /4 Comments

Building a luxury EV has it's own set of problems to overcome.

Late last month, Rolls-Royce unveiled somethingquite unexpected. The first-ever all-electric series production vehicle from the luxury brand, calledSpectre, was shown far sooner than anyone thought. It may still be covered in camouflage, but there wasn't enough to hide the fact it's a big coupe with a long hood and fastback styling. The usual brand styling elements, namely a large grille section, remain. All in all, we very much like what we're seeing. But what about another sensory area, specifically hearing?

Rolls-Royce CEO Torsten Muller-Otvos toldAutocarthat any upcoming EV model could actually be louder inside than one of its existing V12-powered vehicles, like thePhantom. How come?

Because there won't be combustion engine noise to tone down wind and road noise. EVs are already nearly silent, which is why audio engineers need to create artificial sounds to alert pedestrians for very clear safety reasons. That doesn't mean this silence will fully transfer to the cabin. Both wind and road noise will remain. The CEO acknowledged "it's probably not worth" trying to prevent this.

The carmaker's interiors are so quiet, in fact, that prototypes of the most recent Ghost sedan made test subjectsfeel nauseous. There was only one thing to do: find ways to make the sedan's ride even louder.

2018-2021 Rolls-Royce Phantom Rear Passenger Seats

2018-2021 Rolls-Royce Phantom Seat Controls

One method was to recalibrate the V12. Engineers came up with another creative solution by tuning the rear seat frames and trunk components to vibrate at a low frequency. Electrification brings different types of challenges for automakers, and RR certainly has a unique one here.

Customers will probably just have to get used to slightly noisier interiors. We highly doubt that'll deter them. We'll know how noisy or not the Spectre will be inside when it arrives in late 2023. The coupe will set the stage for more EVs, such as an SUV and eventual Phantom and Ghost successors.