Rolls-Royce reveals Project Nightingale, an all-electric coachbuilt collection limited to 100 cars

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Rolls-Royce Motor Cars has unveiled Project Nightingale, the first entry in what the company is calling its Coachbuild Collection: an exclusive series of handbuilt, fully electric open-top two-seat motor cars limited to 100 examples worldwide. Deliveries are set to commence in 2028, and participation in the program is by invitation only, reserved for clients Rolls-Royce describes as having a deep affinity for its design.

Project Nightingale takes its name from Le Rossignol, French for “the nightingale,” which was the name of the house near Henry Royce’s winter residence on the Côte d’Azur where his designers and engineers lived. The connection to that chapter of the company’s history is more than nominal: the design language and color choices for the car presented at Goodwood this week draw directly from the region’s landscape and light, from the pale blue of the Mediterranean to the wild blooms of the Riviera coast.

The announcement positions the car as both a design statement and a declaration about the role of electric propulsion in ultra-luxury motoring. For buyers who eventually take delivery, Project Nightingale argues that the near-silent qualities of an electric drivetrain are not merely a concession to changing regulations but, in fact, the ideal medium through which to experience a Rolls-Royce.

A new kind of Rolls-Royce

Project Nightingale is built on Rolls-Royce’s Architecture of Luxury, the company’s proprietary aluminum spaceframe platform. The Coachbuild Collection is not a limited edition of an existing model but a distinct coachbuilding program, with each of the 100 cars individually curated with its commissioning client through an exclusive, multi-year creative process.

The scope of the program reflects the broader ambitions of ultra-luxury automakers to move beyond the production line and into territory where the car itself is as much a commissioned work as a manufactured product. The Toyota Century Concept demonstrated a similar philosophy when Toyota used the electric format to redefine the interior experience of its flagship limousine, stripping away visual complexity in favor of considered simplicity. Project Nightingale takes that instinct further, applying it to the exterior form as much as to the cabin.

Design derived from the 1920s

The visual language of Project Nightingale draws explicitly from Rolls-Royce’s experimental “EX” motor cars of the late 1920s. Two prototypes, 16EX and 17EX, serve as primary references. Created in 1928 at the height of the Jazz Age, those cars clothed powerful Phantom chassis in lightweight aluminum bodies designed to exceed 90 miles per hour (145 km/h), their torpedo-shaped forms expressing the audacity of Henry Royce’s engineering ambitions.

From those foundations, Rolls-Royce’s Coachbuild designers identified three organizing principles for Project Nightingale. The first is “Upright to flowing,” describing the Pantheon Grille’s vertical gesture as it transitions into the car’s long rear. The second is “Central fuselage,” defined by a single unbroken hull line running from front to rear, inspired by the line that separates a yacht’s hull from its superstructure. The third is “Flying wings,” the sculptural rear volumes that create tension across the overall form and pull the eye toward the tail. The broader aesthetic framework is Streamline Moderne, the late Art Deco design discipline that privileges precise, uninterrupted surface over ornamentation.

At 5.76 meters (18.9 feet) in overall length, Project Nightingale is comparable in scale to the Phantom, Rolls-Royce’s flagship saloon, yet the entire form is devoted to accommodating just two occupants. The Pantheon Grille, nearly a meter wide and carved from a single block of stainless steel, houses 24 vanes set deeply within it. The Spirit of Ecstasy figurine is integrated into a subtly recessed section atop the grille, its lines flowing backward into the bonnet as though moving through water. Twenty-four-inch wheels, described by the company as the largest ever fitted to a Rolls-Royce, feature a directional design inspired by the propellers of a yacht viewed from beneath the waterline.

Electric as an enabler

One of the most notable exterior decisions made possible by the electric drivetrain is the treatment of the front wings. Without the large cooling intakes required by an internal combustion engine, designers created expansive, uninterrupted surfaces between the wings’ outer edges and the grille. The same principle applies at the rear: the carbon fiber Aero Afterdeck diffuser at the base of the tail exists only because the electric powertrain eliminates exhaust outlets entirely, allowing the rear silhouette to taper cleanly without aerodynamic compromise.

Rolls-Royce frames the electric drivetrain not as a technology imposed on the car by external forces but as the natural conclusion of the marque’s long-standing values. Chief Executive Chris Brownridge described the combination of coachbuilding, the electric powertrain, and open-top motoring as three things that have never coexisted within the brand, with the near-silence of electric propulsion enabling an experience that only that technology makes possible.

Other luxury brands have pursued electric performance as a primary draw, as seen in Lexus’s development of the LFA Concept, which placed electric power at the center of a high-performance sports car vision. Rolls-Royce takes a different position, treating the absence of mechanical noise, vibration, and intrusion as the defining luxury attribute of electric propulsion rather than its power output.

The acoustic engineering of Project Nightingale is designed to maximize what the company calls the serenity of open-top travel. The convertible soft top incorporates a unique sound-deadening material combining cashmere, fabric, and high-performance composites. Rolls-Royce says its acoustic engineers aim to eliminate mechanical and wind noise while preserving sounds associated with the romance of driving, including the sound of birdsong and rain on canvas.

That last detail, in fact, is the origin of the car’s interior centerpiece. During an early prototype drive, designers heard birdsong with unusual clarity through the near-silent electric powertrain. They subsequently studied nightingale recordings and analyzed the visual form of their sound waves, translating those patterns into an ambient lighting array called the Starlight Breeze suite. The installation comprises 10,500 individual light sources in three sizes, extending from the front of each door around both seats, wrapping occupants in what Rolls-Royce describes as a flowing constellation inspired by birdsong rendered in light.

A restrained interior for two

For buyers accustomed to the technical abundance of modern luxury interiors, Project Nightingale’s cabin prioritizes restraint. Rotary controls are limited to five in total, curated as a set of jewel-like stainless-steel pieces inspired by contemporary haute joaillerie. The Spirit of Ecstasy appears again as a tactile controller, housed in a stainless-steel collar formed with four grooves and revealed automatically when the coach door opens, and the center armrest glides rearward. At the touch of a button, the armrest moves again to expose a concealed storage compartment.

A structural form called the Horseshoe rises behind the seats, framing both occupants in what the company describes as a protective architectural gesture. The soft-top convertible roof transforms the car’s character entirely when raised, creating a coupé-like closed presence. When lowered, Rolls-Royce designers describe the experience of driving early prototypes as akin to sailing on a yacht, with mechanical noise all but absent and the surrounding environment audible with unusual clarity.

The rear features a compartment called the Piano Boot, which opens sideways on a cantilever, evoking the ceremonial opening of a grand piano lid. A single longitudinal brake lamp is placed directly at the rear centreline, recalling the speed stripes of Streamline Moderne design, while a recessed chrome number plate surround is set into the lower rear face with the precision of a watch bezel.

Testing, production, and availability

Project Nightingale is classified by Rolls-Royce as a production concept. The company says the car’s creative vision is fully resolved but that a small number of remaining design details require manufacturing techniques currently under development. A global testing and validation program is scheduled to begin this summer.

Each of the 100 examples will be coachbuilt by hand at Goodwood, the same facility where all Rolls-Royce production cars are assembled. Clients participating in the Coachbuild Collection program are already engaged in a multi-year series of gatherings and private events curated by Rolls-Royce, allowing them to follow the creative and technical development of their individual car through destinations the company describes as among the world’s most desirable.

The color and material palette developed for Project Nightingale is exclusive to the Coachbuild Collection and will not be offered on any other Rolls-Royce model. The example presented at Goodwood wears an exterior finish called Côte d’Azur Blue, a pale solid hue infused with subtle red metallic flakes that reveal themselves in changing light, a discreet reference to the red badges historically fitted to the EX motor cars. The interior combines Charles Blue, Grace White, Deep Navy, and Peony Pink, with Openpore Blackwood laid in a V-shape that opens toward the sky.

No pricing has been disclosed. The Coachbuild Collection is by invitation only, and client deliveries will begin in 2028. Further engineering specifications are expected to be shared as the car progresses through its global testing program.

For consumers considering high-end electric purchases at a more accessible price point, the trajectory of luxury electrification is illustrated by models like the new Cayenne Electric from Porsche, which uses its electric drivetrain to refine the premium driving experience at a fraction of the cost of a bespoke Rolls-Royce. Project Nightingale sits at the opposite extreme of that spectrum, where the number of clients is smaller than the production run of most niche models, and the ownership experience begins years before the car itself is delivered. Whether or not an invitation is on the horizon, it signals where the most ambitious expressions of electric luxury are headed.