In its marketing material for the new Rolls-Royce Spectre, the company has seized on an apposite nugget from its archives, a quote from The Hon Charles Stewart Rolls dating from 1900: ‘The electric car is perfectly noiseless and clean. There is no smell or vibration. They should become very useful when fixed charging stations can be arranged.’ It was still six years before he joined forces with Henry Royce to found one of the world’s most famous brands – in any sphere. It would be another 123 years before Rolls-Royce finally found itself with an all-electric car.
