Following the announcement of Rolls-Royce’s new Coachbuild Collection, its first expression has now arrived in the form of Project Nightingale: a striking open-top electric grand-tourer, limited to just 100 units worldwide
The first-ever Coachbuild Collection has now landed. Named Project Nightingale, it is an open two-seat motor car that pays homage to the marque’s past and is a quietly radical statement about where it’s headed next.
Having caught a glimpse of the project prototype during our visit to the Home of Rolls-Royce in Goodwood last October, its official unveiling now brings the broader vision into focus. If the Coachbuild Collection was conceived as a new by-invite-only proposition for the marque’s most design-literate clientele, then Project Nightingale sets the tone in emphatic fashion.
Derived from Le Rossignol (which translates to ‘the nightingale’ in French), the name of the designers’ house near Henry Royce’s winter home on the Côte d’Azur, Project Nightingale draws inspiration from the experimental ‘EX’ Rolls-Royces of the 1920s. The result is a dramatic, all-electric convertible defined by grand proportions, a long bonnet, a compact cabin for two, and the sort of sheer, monolithic surfacing that makes ornament feel unnecessary. Rolls-Royce describes it as being influenced by Streamline Moderne design, and that sense of sculptural clarity comes through in everything from its central fuselage silhouette to its slim vertical lamps and almost yacht-like profile.
At 5.76 metres long, Project Nightingale is almost as lengthy as a Phantom, yet devoted entirely to open-top motoring. Its fully electric drivetrain is central to both its design and character, allowing for uninterrupted surfacing up front while delivering what Rolls-Royce calls a uniquely silent open-air experience. Even the interior leans into that serenity, with a new “Starlight Breeze” illuminated suite inspired by the soundwave patterns of birdsong.
Just 100 client cars will be built by hand at Goodwood, with deliveries beginning from 2028. For now, Project Nightingale is still a production concept, with its global testing and validation programme set to begin this summer. Still, as first statements go, this is a compelling one. More than just the inaugural Coachbuild Collection mode, Project Nightingale suggests that Rolls-Royce’s moswt interesting future may lie in giving its most discerning clients an entirely new world to step into.
