The electric Rolls-Royce Spectre has now covered almost two million kilometres as it completes the third phase of the most rigorous testing programme ever devised in the British marque’s 118-year history.

The Spectre, Rolls-Royce’s genre-defining all-electric super coupé, is currently undergoing extreme hot weather tests in two locations in South Africa: Augrabies in the Northern Cape; and Franschhoek, the ‘French Corner’ in the Western Cape winelands. 

The stable yet contrasting climates provide some of the finest summer-weather driving in the world, with dry and extremely hot conditions in the north and more humid, Mediterranean-style, conditions in the south. At its hottest, temperatures can exceed 50°C, while the southern region hosts a great variety of surfaces and terrains, including twisting country roads replete with gravel, dust and dirt.

During this stage, engineers are observing and refining every system, hardware item and software protocol that has been developed over the course of almost two million kilometres of continuous testing.

Dr Mihiar Ayoubi, Director of Engineering at Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, says the reason for “our extraordinary and restless global testing process is simple: there has never been a motor car like Spectre before”. 

“As the first all-electric Rolls-Royce, Spectre represents not just a new paradigm in our technology, but the entire future direction of our brand,” said Dr Ayoubi.

“Only Rolls-Royce engineers could conceive this astonishing journey, and only Rolls-Royce engineers could undertake it: the task is not to test a motor car but to elevate the benchmark of automotive excellence.”

Ahead of the first cars being delivered to clients, scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2023, Spectre has undergone exhaustive trials designed to replicate almost 400 years of normal use, in some of the most extreme conditions on Earth. In total, the car will cover more than 2.5 million kilometres – the equivalent of circumnavigating the globe 62 times