Rolls-Royce 3.0 represents the beginning of the marque’s bold electric future. The term ‘Rolls-Royce 3.0’ is a reference to the brand’s progress during its renaissance, which began in Goodwood, West Sussex on 1st January 2003. The first Goodwood Rolls-Royce was Phantom, and it was underpinned by its own Bespoke architecture. This was Rolls-Royce 1.0. Following this, a new, highly flexible all-aluminium spaceframe architecture was conceived that could be adapted for multiple applications, including the current Phantom, Cullinan, Ghost and Coachbuild projects. This was Rolls-Royce 2.0. Rolls-Royce 3.0 is the integration of a fully electric power train and Decentralised Intelligence into the marque’s architecture.
In component terms, the simplicity of the car has increased significantly. However, the requirement for engineering Spectre – of sending this uneducated car to Rolls-Royce finishing school – is unparalleled. The definition of engineering has changed. Historically, engineering a Rolls-Royce has taken place in workshops. Spectre sees this pivot into the digital space.
Spectre is the most connected Rolls-Royce ever and each component within it is more intelligent than in any previous Rolls-Royce. It features 141,200 sender-receiver relations and has more than 1,000 functions with more than 25,000 sub functions. By comparison, Phantom has 51,000 sender-receiver relations, 456 functions and 647 sub functions.
The dramatically increased intelligence of Spectre’s electronic and electric powertrain architecture enables a free and direct exchange of detailed information between these 1,000+ functions with no centralised processing. While this has required engineers to increase the length of cabling from around 2 kilometres in existing Rolls-Royce products to 7 kilometres in Spectre, and to write more than 25 times more algorithms, it offers a significant step forward for the brand. A dedicated control can be created for each set of functions which enables unprecedented levels of detail and refinement, allowing for what Rolls-Royce chassis specialists are already calling “Rolls-Royce in high definition”.