The upcoming Rolls-Royce Spectre is going to be the world's first invisible car, according to company boss Torsten Müller-Ötvös.

"For over a hundred years, Rolls-Royce has been known for quietness, almost as silent as ghosts. However, this is no longer enough for tomorrow, as all our rivals are also turning to full electric power, which is also as silent as ghosts. To go one step further, we will make our car as invisible as ghosts, too."

While the announcement sounds a bit incredible, almost like an April Fool's joke, we are quite sure that it is true. One solid evidence is the early test mule caught in Sweden undergoing winter testing. It is covered in livery with prominent slogans reading "When exist is not exist", "Not Exist" etc. We learned that the black film covering its huge body is used to make the car visible to testing engineers, who failed to find the Spectre test mule in car park a number of times previously. In fact, they have written off a few prototypes by now due to this reason.

As for how to achieve the invisible effect, Rolls-Royce said it is a commercial secret thus declined to reveal. However, it hints that the technology involves advanced optic fibers, sophisticated 4D imaging technology and a bit of magic.

According to Müller-Ötvös, invisible technology has a number of advantages. Firstly, it makes its owner forget how huge and ungainly the car is. Secondly, it is convenient to slip into car parks and charging points without paying. Thirdly but also most importantly, in combination with its silent powertrain and peerless rolling refinement, you can drive home at 3am without arousing your suspicious wife.

As for the rest of Spectre, Müller-Ötvös said the firm is working hard to make the car feel every bit Rolls-Royce. He revealed that the early test mule felt incredibly like a Lotus to drive, blame to its perfect weight distribution, low center of gravity contributed by floor-mounted batteries and instantaneous electric torque vectoring front and rear. Moreover, as the car is built around an all-aluminium spaceframe chassis, it is actually lighter than a Lotus Eletre, an SUV tipped to weigh some 2500kg and still dares to call itself a Lotus. No wonder the Roller is capable to do 160 mph and 0-60 under 3 seconds, even though its power and torque output are quoted as "adequate".

"The last thing we want to be described is driving like a Lotus. If a Chinese-built SUV made of part -aluminum and part-steel, plenty of Geely and Volvo components is said to feel like Rolls-Royce, I guess my boss will replace me with a Chinese guy as well."

"In fact, after installing the battery all over the floorpan, we still found too much space left under the driver for the commanding seating position our customers used to. That hollow structure sounds terrible! In the end, we put sandbags and a 3-inch thick tiger skin carpet above the battery and have the problem solved."

"As for chassis dynamics, we definitely hate to be as agile as Lotus, even though we are capable to do so. Electric cars are really crazy. All of them run the same configuration of front and rear motors, torque vectoring and floor-mounted battery. You can simply have any handling and ride characteristics by changing the software. It might sound fabulous if we can make a Lotus-beating Roller, but if that is the case, they can also build a Rolls-Royce-like Lotus!"

"That's why we are still exploring some significant changes in hardware. We are putting some batteries at the roof, just to introduce the body roll that deserves the name Rolls. Likewise, we are reshaping the Flying Ecstasy with the help of CFD and windtunnel, increasing the amount of front-end lift it generates. We are working hard to fix the number of battery cells to 6750, a number associated with our engines since 1965. And finally, that invisible body should make a huge difference. That's the way to compete and survive in the electric era."