Robb Interview: Philipe Starck

No other brand is more suited to the serene experience offered by electrification than Rolls-Royce. With the launch of Spectre, we get a glimpse of what the future of true EV luxury looks like.

In an alternative timeline, the opulent electrified super coupé you see on these pages, Spectre, Rolls-Royce’s long-awaited debut EV, might be a model of the past.

In 1900, Rolls-Royce co-founder Charles Rolls experienced The Columbia Electric Carriage—one of the world’s first EVs—and was smitten by its potential.

“The electric car is perfectly noiseless and clean,” Rolls proclaimed. “There is no smell or vibration.” Petrol won in the end, but for Rolls, the potential of electricity helped shape his vision of the prestige automobile. One hundred and twenty years later, the now BMW-owned, British marque bearing his name has come full circle.

“Spectre is a Rolls-Royce first and ‘electrified Rolls-Royce’ second,” says Torsten Müller-Ötvös, chief executive officer of Rolls-Royce, speaking to Robb Report ANZ at the recent Spectre reveal at the marque’s home at Goodwood, UK. “The shape clearly signals that this car is a Rolls-Royce.” Despite all the temptations of styling, flexibility and current automotive trends (such as the SUV/crossover boom), Spectre doesn’t stray far from home. But, why would it? A silent and graceful car with an imperious presence is what Rolls-Royce has aspired to since day dot.

Part of Rolls-Royce’s road to full-electrification by 2030, Spectre is the result of more than 2.5 million kilometres of testing and an incredibly thorough rethink around how aerodynamics can meet the traditional coach-building aesthetics central to the marque’s DNA. In numbers, Spectre claims 430kW/900Nm of power and torque, 0-100km/h in 4.5 seconds, a 520km range, and 21.5 kWh/100km efficiency — do the math, and you get a 111kW/h battery. The super coupé is also a shockingly slippery thing, with a drag coefficient of 0.25. Compare that to the pointier Tesla Model S’ 0.24, and it’s a grand testament to the block-nosed, 5.45m-long coupé’s design wizardry. Even the iconic Spirit of Ecstasy hood ornament didn’t escape a sleek makeover—it saw around 830 hours of wind-tunnel testing and modelling to ensure it was aero-tuned to perfection.

Behind its split headlights and enormous ‘Parthenon Grille’ is not a frunk in lieu of a V12, but components, battery systems, fluids and technology. This decision helped achieve its cool, low-slung driving position and full four-seater comfort. “Spectre’s overall impression is what greets you — the long front bonnet, the graceful silhouette beautifully falling towards the back—this is a dramatic feature that recalls the most evocative motor vehicles in history,” design director Anders Warming explains. The high-haunches and curvaceous fastback that fall down to the tail are cleanly sculpted from a single piece of aluminium for aerodynamic precision.

“It’s a very intricate tailoring of what aluminium is able to do,” explains Warming, emphasising the achievement. “We really stretched our engineering colleagues; they helped us a lot to get the right processes in place uninterrupted.”

Spectre’s 1.5m coach doors, the largest ever fitted to a Rolls-Royce, are both optimised for weight and attenuated for pure silence inside. As it turns out, a sense of serenity is also assisted by 700kgs of sound deadening from the battery, ensuring the Rolls-Royce ’magic carpet ride’ feel is not lost. The finer details are exquisite —floating taillights, for example, appear like jewellery, which Warming refers to as  “islands in a lake”); and pleasantly, the interior still has an array of buttons, as well as a new evolution of the ‘starlight’ headliners on offer: Starlight Doors. These can incorporate 4796 dimly lit cosmos-inspired lights. Of course, being the most bespoke-orientated marque in the world, almost every element of Spectre is customisable.

With one of the highest levels of luxury connoisseurship in the world, the Rolls-Royce customer helps push and shape the marque’s future decisions. “We’re seeing a new world of luxury clients looking for something less of an element of status. They will have that as well if they need to, but [this is] more of a self-rewarding purchase,” says Müller-Ötvös. “You are rewarding yourself with a piece of art.” This customer is getting younger and is in tune with global shifts, technology and where luxury is moving. “They are always teaching us,” says Warming. “I like to say one plus one is three. In my world, the sum of our conversation [with customers] is greater than us individually. The process with our clients teaches us and inspires us to think differently. I don’t think any other luxury brand is as open to a dialogue with clients as ours. Because we have several thousands of components and so much canvas to create a unique Rolls-Royce car.”

It’s interesting to think that the segment that aims to normalise the electric car, in terms of design, usability and how easily it slides into our lifestyles, is not only at the pinnacle of luxury and rarity, but also has the most flexibility to shift away from the expected —but here we are. “What’s really important about this car is it’s a dawn of a new era of cars,” says Warming. “It couldn’t be a generic shape. It couldn’t be just any car. It had to feel like a Rolls-Royce: the grille in the front, the Spirit of Ecstasy, long bonnet, beautiful roofline, large wheels, off to the races.”

Rolls-Royce Spectre is now available to order, pricing TBC; rollsroyce.com

The Emilia-Romagna region in the north of Italy, which includes Bologna, Modena, Parma, Maranello, and where our story comes from today, Sant’Agata Bolognese, is not lacking in myth or history.

It’s home to Italy’s finest exports and hallowed ground for those seeking the sensory. Here, history pushes innovation and myth perpetuates it.

Although not as oft-quoted as his Maranello rival, Ferruccio Lamborghini — entrepreneur, winemaker, engineer and tractor-maker-turned-supercar legend—truly embodied the region.

Rivalry aside, the story most telling about Lamborghini himself was that he never planned on getting into sports cars at all, “But I knew a better car could be built,” he famously said.

This forward-thinking mindset framed by betterment has been guiding Sant’Agata ever since. Lamborghini has survived several hardships, including a drop of almost 50 per cent post-GFC sales. As that headline went worldwide, CEO Stephan Winkelmann was busily navigating the storm, future-proofing from all angles.

This not only led to the creation of the company’s highly successful life raft, the Urus, but in 2009, saw new environmental solutions implemented – Lamborghini becoming the first Italian automotive company to earn European and international green certifications. By 2015, it had achieved carbon neutrality.

One could argue that a Lamborghini, by nature, is a greener car to own. Less than 10,000 are built annually, the average mileage is low and each is held as a work of art that rarely falls to scrap. In fact, according to the marque, 80 per cent of Lamborghini vehicles produced in the past 59 years still exist today. Still, it’s an argument the CEO wants his customers, nor Lamborghini, to lean on.

“We have a social responsibility,” Winkelmann tells Robb Report. “So no matter how big or small you are, you must do your part. On top of that, we are fulfilling a dream.”

Winkelmann’s brand awareness is astute in that he agrees it not only matters what Lamborghini owners think of their car, but so do the opinions of their neighbours. Granted, that might be an uphill battle for the Raging Bull.

“The discussion about environmental issues is so emotional that you will never get to explain, ‘I’m just going a couple of 1000s of miles, and they’re only producing so many.’ The discussion is already over,” says Winkelmann.

“It’s about emotions. If you’re willing to play or be part of the game in the future, you cannot find excuses. And no legislation or political loopholes, just because you have the money to do so. This is something we want to avoid.”

Creating an electrified supercar—which the marue will do by the end of the decade via a range of hybridised models, starting with the Aventador replacement —and calling it a day is not an option if the brand wants to retain poster car status for the next generation.
“Our name is bigger than our footprint. Therefore, it’s also important every customer continues to be proud of what we’re doing.”

Future Lamborghini pride will come from a strategy that includes a 50 per cent emissions reduction by 2025 and 100 per cent by 2035 and a boastful $2.7 billion of investment made in the next four years alone. Despite being on track, Winkelmann admits the journey from here is one of the hardest in the OEM’s history. So how is Lamborghini doing it?

The pursuit of tangible and quantifiable emissions reduction started at a hyperlocal level via a holistic, 360-degree philosophy that forced the factory to re-consider its output end-to-end. The local approach has led to increasing R&D in technical and composite materials (which includes a collaboration with NASA), alternate energy solutions and work with local businesses, scientists and social enterprises.

For example, two circularity projects now look at new ways of repurposing carbon fibre and interior leather offcuts in both vehicle and non-automotive branded products (such as small leather goods). The exploration of alternate energy, such as biomethane—a gas produced from the fermentation of agricultural wastage—has helped with energy needs. Biogas is utilised for heating and cooling through a partnership with a nearby plant, which directs thermal energy into a closed loop of water sent underground to the factory for internal heating. A new biogas plant is in development and will power 65 per cent of the site’s gas needs —a notable and timely shift from natural gas.

Elsewhere,a rethinking of logistics now sees parts and Urus shells arriving from Volkswagen in Zwickau, Germany, via rail instead of road. This lowered the journey’s CO2 emissions by 85 per cent and now has a transit time of just 48 hours.

Meeting the complexities of Lambroghini’s Ad Personam customisation program with green strategies required rethinking the traditional factory line paint shop. Hence, Lamborghini’s Urus paint shop is one of the few in the world that operates using a modular, vertical system which produces the super SUV by demand and can create any colour the customer desires. It’s also one of the most efficient, with a 30 per cent smaller footprint than paint shops of equivalent capacity.

The revolutionary verticalisation of the plant means the Urus’ journey is more like a snakes and ladders process, than a line, so no car is ever left idly waiting. The paints are 95 per cent water-based and magnetically charged, which minimises overspray in a remarkably effective way. Any drips are funnelled into a waste system made of cardboard cubes that are broken down and recycled and at least 15 per cent of the industrial water is also recirculated.

A post-burner technology recovers and reuses heat for the ovens, emissions from solvents are minimal, and a centralised thermal oxidation plant treats the discharged air —the building doesn’t even smell like paint, if you can believe it. Out-of-house initiatives include bio-science experiments at Lamborghini Park, a picturesque parkland area near the factory. Here, young oak forests, bio-rich wetlands and 13 beehives fuel research into reforestation and the impact of pollutants, industry and agriculture with the help of local and international researchers. For anything external, suppliers are rigorously vetted and will be in the future, too —including across electrification needs.

Visiting Sant’Agata at a time when high-powered, evocative and roaring V10 and V12 engines are at their technological peak, yet also in their twilight, comes with sadness. Winkelmann nods in agreemen: “For me, it is sad —I’m a car guy and an ICE guy,” he shrugs. “But legislation is putting it to an end if you like it or not. I look at the younger generations. I have a boy – he’s 22. He’s not interested in cars. But when he speaks, there is a background noise around the environment. If I speak to young kids, even if they are enthusiastic [about cars], there’s always this, and it will grow.”

Winkelmann pauses. “But even if it’s sad. I think there will be a moment when battery technology will be better than today’s internal combustion engines in terms of performance and weight. So there will be generations that will compare the cars differently.”

Will synthetic fuel save us? Winkelmann holds doubts about mass adoption.

“I am seeing it more, but it’s a moving target,” he says. “There will be less fuel available, maybe only synthetic fuel. And this will likely be more expensive. Maybe it will only relate to those cars in the hands of our customers, which will then be historical cars.”

When we meet, Winkelman is in the throes of launching the Raging Bull’s final ICE car, the Huracán Serrato, AKA, the safari Huracán. This off-roader will be launched at Art Basel in Miami and is a sentimental, inspired last hurrah.

“This is a car which is an off-road, super sports car. It’s something I have always wanted to do but we never had the opportunity. And, well, now we’re doing it.

“This car makes it very difficult [for others] to follow in our footsteps. It’s unexpected and therefore is exactly what we’re aiming for. We are an aspirational brand. And we are brave, and if you are brave enough, you do things that nobody else has done before. And this creates the unexpected.”

Aside from taking some of the environmental burden off Lamborghini’s customers’ shoulders, what will a Lamborghini of the future look like?

“It will have to always be very different from the cars of today, but always immediately recognisable,” the CEO says, somewhat coyly, adding that performance comes first – emotion runs third.

Although his beloved engines are no more, Ferruccio Lamborghini’s spirit lives on at Sant’Agata.

“I think it’s pretty clear now that we cannot, and we don’t want to step out or away from this social responsibility,” Winkelman reflects. “We must accept the challenge, look forward, and make something out of it. And this is the beauty of it. We can do something and do it even better than before.”

lamborghini.com

Porsche is serious about electrifying its entire lineup—even its most iconic model, the 911.

The German marque’s CEO, Oliver Blume reconfirmed that a hybrid version of the famous sports car is on the way in a recent interview with Car magazine. Don’t expect an all-electric variant to follow soon after, though. Porsche wants to keep an internal combustion engine in the 911 for the foreseeable future.

During his conversation with the British publication, Blume said the brand plans to “add a very sporty hybridisation to the 911 [lineup].” The executive didn’t go into any more detail, but Motor1.com reports that the electrified variant—which we’ve seen undergoing testing at the Nürburgring—won’t be a plug-in hybrid because it would add too much weight to the vehicle. Instead, it will use self-charging technology adapted from the brand’s Le Mans-winning 919 endurance car.

Blume also told Car that the 911 “will be the model which we will drive as long as we can with a combustion engine.” This statement comes just weeks after Porsche announced that it had begun producing a nearly carbon-neutral synthetic fuel in Chile and was testing it out in the 911.

A battery-powered variant may not be on the horizon, but it does feel like an inevitability at this point. Blume said Porsche’s “aim” is to eventually offer internal combustion, hybrid and electric options for each of its model segments, including two-door sports cars, four-door limousines and SUVs.

“We have a clear strategy driving the ramp-up of electrification during the next few years, with the goal of delivering over 80 percent fully electric by 2030,” Blume told the magazine. “It is a very strong ramp-up curve.”

While Blume didn’t announce a timetable for the 911 hybrid, you won’t have to wait long to start seeing the results of the brand’s electrification push. An all-electric Macan should debut later this year, with a battery-powered 718 expected to follow in 2025.

To any motoring-minded observer, 32-year-old photographer Stephan Bauer is living every car enthusiast’s dream life – one that largely consists of travelling to exotic locations to take stunning pictures of even more exotic vehicles.
Robb Report caught up with Bauer on the eve of yet another international car week to see if the reality matches the dream. Spoiler alert: it does … and then some.

Robb Report: Let’s start at the beginning — how did you first get into automotive photography?
Stephan Bauer: My first job was working in Detroit as an art director. But Europe was on my mind, and is definitely home to the cars I like working with. So I moved to Germany, and the goal was always to quit working and go full-time into photography.
It was one of those things where you keep waiting for the perfect moment, but that moment never comes. So in 2016 I set myself a 12-month deadline to quit my job, whether I thought I had enough photography clients or not. I knew if I tried and failed it would be ok, but to never try was something I’d always regret. The first two years were an absolute disaster. But I pushed on and turned it around, and I’ve been a professional photographer ever since.

Which passion came first, cars or photography?
Definitely cars. I’ve been car crazy since I was a little kid, and then as a teenager I started getting interested in photography. I realised bringing those two worlds together was my entry into working in the automotive industry and it kind of snowballed from there. I love classic cars, that’s the stuff I gravitate toward, and that I really have a passion for. So high-end classic cars and high-end modern cars — anything in the higher bracket of the market — is the niche I work in and most of it came from me doing private work with the owners of some of these vehicles.

Not many people get to work in a field they truly love every day. It must feel great?
It’s a crazy lifestyle and sometimes the travel is too much and it all catches up with me. But I feel so fortunate that I’m able to make a living from working in my dream job, and that I get paid to spend time with the cars I’ve loved since I was three years old.

There must be some challenges, though?
The travel definitely puts strain on your relationships – it’s not easy, that’s for sure. I’m away for around half the year on average, and it can be very difficult for people to understand that lifestyle.

How do you maintain the inspiration?
It’s not really the cars, but what I can do with them that inspires me. It doesn’t matter if it’s the most collectible, or most valuable, vehicle in the world — if I can’t do something special in the photography then it feels wasted. So that’s the inspiration to evolve as a photographer.

You do more travel than your average spy — do you have a home base or would you be in it too infrequently to bother?
Well, I was born in Vienna, Austria. I grew up mostly between the USA and Canada. Right now I’m living in Munich, Germany, and spending my winters in Cape Town, South Africa. There’s not much happening in Europe over winter, so I started spending my winters there to have some warm weather and to shoot some crazy cars.

Your portfolio is overflowing with amazing cars and experiences, but is there one project that really stands out?
We did a road-trip for a TV show called The Drive in 2017, which was a race across Iceland with a McLaren 570 GT and a Ford F-150 Raptor. So the Raptor would go straight through Iceland off-road, and the McLaren would take the loop road around the county. Even getting there was a crazy adventure – we drove from Germany to Denmark, took a two-day ferry to Iceland, then drove them through to Reykjavik. Those cars were like UFOs over there, it was insane.

stephan-bauer.squarespace.com