Rolls Royce marketers will always mention how quiet their cabins are at every new mode launch. Pride in delivering the carpet ride comfort, ultimate motoring luxury and a powerful engine is also mentioned, but the emphasis on how quiet the cabin will be has always been a priority and now with this full electric Rolls Royce on test around the globe, they will again have a super quiet luxury car as all electric vehicles are already quiet, some too quiet with only the noise of the tyres rolling to be heard.
We still remember the 2017 launch of the latest Phantom when they proudly called it ‘the most silent motor car in the world’. Then when we got to test drive this Phantom for a few hours, it was really very silent in the cabin and somewhat eerie as we wanted to hear its V12 engine rumbling as we used its 900Nm of available torque on the open highway.
To get this level of cabin silence when on the move, Rolls Royce engineers had to install 6mm two-layer glazing all around the car, more than 130kg of sound insulation, the largest ever cast aluminium joints in a body-in-white for better sound insulation, and use high absorption materials.
This was not enough. They also had to use double skin alloy on areas within the floor and bulkhead of the spaceframe. This is a feature unique to the 2017 Phantom. They also increased noise insulation by inserting dense foam and felt layers between these skins to provide sound insulation not witnessed before in the car industry.
In addition, high absorption layers within the headliner, in the doors and in the boot cavity further aided insulation and reduced reverberation. Rolls-Royce also worked closely with its tyre supplier to invent ‘Silent-Seal’ tires, which feature a specific foam layer placed inside the tyre to wipe out tyre cavity noise and reduce overall tyre noise by 9db, meaning that conversations inside the cabin is completely effortless.
Now comes news of a full battery electric Rolls Royce to be launched in late 2023. The new car will be named ‘Spectre’ and it fulfils the 1900 prophecy of the marque’s founder, Charles Rolls and promise kept by the CEO, who has pledged to bring an electric car to market this decade.
It is a name that is as powerful and evocative as the nameplates that have served us perfectly for the past century, like Phantom, Ghost and Wraith. The Spectre is underpinned by Rolls-Royce’s own proprietary spaceframe architecture and the electric powertrain will be coming from its owner, BMW.
It is a well known fact that electric vehicle (EV) are quiet, very quiet and EV manufacturers work with ‘speaker’ brands to deliver an engine note to provide some indication to pedestrians and also for the EV driver to ‘feel’ the car. So, with a full EV Rolls Royce, cabin insulation and noise engineers now have less to worry about and about 130kg of sound insulation will be saved.
PRESS RELEASE: In an historic announcement, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars announced this week, that on-road testing of its first fully electric motor car is imminent. In announcing this seminal moment for the marque, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Chief Executive Officer, Torsten Müller-Ötvös, said:
“Today is the most significant day in the history of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars since 4th May, 1904. On that date, our founding fathers, Charles Rolls and Sir Henry Royce, first met and agreed that they were going to create ‘the best motor car in the world’.
“Using the most advanced technology available to them at the time and by applying their remarkable engineering minds, these two pioneers elevated early internal combustion engine cars, from noisy, uncomfortable and rudimentary means of transportation, by setting a completely new benchmark of distinction.
“The cars they created, introduced to the world a true luxury experience and secured for Rolls-Royce the ultimate pinnacle position that it continues to occupy, unchallenged, to this day. The marque has continued to define the very best in internal combustion motoring for more than a century.
“Today, 117 years later, I am proud to announce that Rolls-Royce is to begin the on-road testing programme for an extraordinary new product that will elevate the global all-electric car revolution and create the first – and finest – super-luxury product of its type. This is not a prototype. It’s the real thing, it will be tested in plain sight and our clients will take first deliveries of the car in the fourth quarter of 2023.”
