Pure electric power in a velvet glove: meet the new Rolls-Royce Black Badge Spectre

The news Black Badge edition of the Rolls-Royce Spectre comes with an enticing headline: it’s the most powerful Rolls-Royce in history. For a marque that excels in superlatives, catering to a clientele who demand them, that alone should be enough to encourage an even greater uptake of the all-electric four-seat grand tourer.

Spectre first manifested in 2022, and our initial stint behind the wheel at the car’s Napa Valley launch the following summer confirmed that Rolls-Royce had cracked the thorny issue of electrification at its very first try. In actual fact, the British luxury brand leaned heavily on the expertise and experience of parent company BMW, a brand that knows a thing or two about EVs.

Nevertheless, Spectre’s silent, ethereal presence not only moved the EV game on but was a seamless fit for the engineering values that the Rolls-Royce name has been associated with for well over a century. So what then is Black Badge? The name signifies a Rolls-Royce with a little bit of extra oomph, a tightening up of the focus on throttle and steering, along with a host of aesthetic changes that err on the side of the more audacious and extrovert.

There have Black Badge versions of other models, including the Rolls-Royce Ghost and Wraith – indeed, it was a client request for a ‘blacked out’, stealthy-looking Wraith that kickstarted the entire Black Badge operation, now an important part of Rolls-Royce’s hugely busy Bespoke department.

The idea of creating a subversive, meaner-looking version of an already quite imposing automobile emerged at a time of intensified interest in the dark, moody side of luxe, an age when disruptors and innovators were chasing ways to express themselves in art, architecture, design and automobiles. A few years ago, Rolls-Royce even drew a line between its daredevil co-founder C. S. Rolls and the ‘firebrand archetype that Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Richard Branson and Larry Ellison strive to emulate today.’ Although the roll call hasn’t aged well, it’s worth noting that both the company’s successes and excesses are driven entirely by what people want.

The relentless requests placed on Rolls-Royce Bespoke reflects that. The specialist division busies itself with ‘standard’ Black Badge cars and limited editions, like the 12 examples of the Rolls-Royce Black Badge Wraith Black Arrow from 2023, or the one-off Spectre Lunaflair. Black Badge Spectre is another tool in its armoury of disposable income-seeking missiles.

In fact, the BB Spectre was considered to be such a sure thing that the company built a ‘clandestine fleet’ of 25 models last year, well in advance of this month’s reveal. These trusted but thirsty customers are the kind of disruptive early adopters who help keep the engine house of Rolls-Royce ticking over.

For Andrew Monihan, Lead Engineer of RR’s Black Badge programme, the challenge was how to tweak and enhance the EV powertrain and dynamics to give the Spectre a character change. Thousands of miles of anonymised driving data revealed how clients tended to use their Rolls-Royces, rarely pushing them near any sort of limit and deploying things like the accelerative standing start (known as Spirited Mode) very sparingly.

The power hike comes courtesy of the new Infinity Mode, a discrete steering wheel mounted button that gives instant access to 659hp worth of power. The company makes a playful allusion to the way in which WWII Spitfire pilots could temporarily amp up the power output of their Rolls-Royce Merlin aero engine – via a simple button. Despite the Spectre’s clearly colossal bulk, it puts on a swift turn of speed, made all the more impressive by the eerie silence of the drivetrain and sublimely well insulated cabin. It is no lithe fighter plane: a Spectre actually weighs more than the Spitfire Mk1.

The cabin is loud in other ways, however, for Black Badge customers get more illuminations than Blackpool, including glowing treadplates, fascia and even the famous Pantheon Grille. Body colours are relatively discrete in comparison to the polychromatic perversity of the interior trim on offer, although the new Vapour Violet paint is apparently ‘inspired by the neon lights of 1980s and 1990s club culture.’

As we’ve noted before, if Rolls-Royce didn’t let its clients dip into the infinite bag of coloured crayons, there are plenty of aftermarket specialists who would, so it makes good financial sense to keep any and all bespoke requests in house. When you can choose the exact colour, and often material, of anything and everything, specifying a machine as complex as a Rolls-Royce looks rather daunting.

Hence the Black Badge Spectre serves as a curated design experience, from the swirling galaxy of stars on the Illuminated Fascia, through to the five colour themes for the digital instrument dials (Vivid Grellow, Neon Nights, Cyan Fire, Ultraviolet and Synth Wave), with its curious and rather screen-savery graphics on the central speedo. There's also the ‘Technical Fibre’ surfaces, which add a lustre of craft and polish to the now rather quotidian carbon fibre trim.

We were lucky enough to sample the new Spectre on a Spanish racetrack, with enough space to explore the pace and dynamics of a car that is too large to run wild on the public road. The electric punch of Spirited Mode takes the car to 60mph in 4.1 seconds, something that must be experienced to be believed. With the magic button engaged, the Spectre is more direct and communicative in the long sweeping curves of the track.

It’s by no means a sports car, and Rolls-Royce would never claim it as such, but it is undeniably ‘sporting’. When driven more sedately, as a Rolls-Royce really should, the refinement beats all other EVs hands down, with Spirited Mode offering just the faintest discernible shift in the car’s ‘soundtrack’ as an indication that more power is now on hand.

Rolls-Royce knows a lot about its customers. It’s not just that it has their (anonymised, we stress again) driving data – in common with many other manufacturers – but it goes out of its way to lure them to the HQ in Goodwood and to various Rolls-Royce Owner’s Lounges around the world, or encourage them to connect via the owner-only Whispers app. Spectre has proved very popular, especially in Europe, and we’re sure there’s a market for its Angstless Neo-Goth aesthetic, from the Vapour Violet to the polished spiky five-spoke wheels and none more black trim.

One thing that really struck us after a day behind the wheel of Black Badge Spectre is how little thought we gave to the fact we were driving an EV. Back in 2023, Rolls-Royce was a pioneer in the ultra-luxury sector – aside from a few multi-million-pound hypercars, it had no equal. That’s still the case, with no sign yet of any EVs from ‘rival’ brands like Bentley, Aston Martin or even Ferrari. Whilst they’re all fretting about the potential reputational damage of going electric, Rolls-Royce just went and did it.

The price? A standard Spectre starts at well over £300,000. With the Black Badge accoutrements and lure of additional options, customers could easily find themselves knocking on the door of half a million pounds. Although the Black Badge Spectre is clearly not the ultimate symbol of spirited individualism Rolls-Royce claims, it makes a marked change from the conventional trappings of extreme wealth.

Rolls-Royce Black Badge Spectre, further details at Rolls-RoyceMotorsCars.com, @RollsRoyceCars