There are cars, and then there are commissions. Project Nightingale, the latest creation from Rolls-Royce’s Coachbuild programme, sits firmly in the second category: an open-top, two-seat electric motor car limited to 100 examples worldwide, with deliveries beginning in 2028.
The name comes from Le Rossignol, the house where Rolls-Royce’s designers and engineers gathered at Henry Royce’s winter estate on the French Riviera. It means, simply, the nightingale.
The starting point was a set of Rolls-Royce experimental cars from the 1920s: low-slung, aluminium-bodied speed machines built to push the brand to its limits. Project Nightingale draws the same silhouette forward a century: a long bonnet, a shallow windscreen, a compact cabin set deep within the body, and a rear that tapers dramatically toward the tail. At 5.76 metres long, it is roughly the same length as a Rolls-Royce Phantom, but devoted entirely to two people.
The aesthetic discipline here is striking. Inspired by the clean, unbroken lines of late Art Deco design, the bodywork reads almost like a single carved form. The grille, nearly a metre wide, appearing to be cut from solid stainless steel, anchors the front, while a continuous line runs from the front wings all the way to the tail, echoing the hull line of a sailing yacht.
The wheels, at 24 inches, the largest ever fitted to a Rolls-Royce, are designed to look like they’re already in motion when the car is standing still. The boot opens sideways like a grand piano lid. Every detail, including the door handles, hides its mechanism completely.
Project Nightingale is fully electric, and the powertrain shapes the entire character of the car. During early test drives, Rolls-Royce designers described the sensation of driving open-top as similar to being on a sailing yacht: wind noise all but gone, no engine sound, just the world around you. Birdsong, apparently, was clearly audible.
That detail led directly to the interior. Designers studied recordings of nightingales, analysed the sound-wave patterns, and translated them into a lighting installation inside the cabin: 10,500 individual points of light, in three sizes, wrapping around the driver and passenger in what Rolls-Royce calls the Starlight Breeze suite. It is less dashboard, more atmosphere.
The interior is genuinely unlike anything currently in production. The seats sit deep within the body, framed by a sculptural form called the Horseshoe that rises behind the occupants. The leather detailing references saddlery. The controls are reduced to five rotary dials, each finished with the kind of precision you’d expect from a fine watch. On opening the door, the armrest slides back automatically to reveal the main controller: a jewelled stainless-steel piece that wouldn’t look out of place in a jeweller’s window.
There is a hidden shelf behind the seats for hand luggage, machined aluminium cupholders, and a concealed compartment for personal items. For a car conceived for long, unhurried journeys, the thoughtfulness is in the details.
The example shown at launch wears a pale blue exterior called Côte d’Azur Blue, which carries subtle red flakes that emerge in changing light. Inside, soft pastel blues, warm whites, and touches of Peony Pink reference the colours of the Riviera, with dark wood veneer drawing the eye upward to the open sky.
Access is by invitation only, offered to clients the brand describes as having a deep affinity for Rolls-Royce design. Those already selected are part of a multi-year programme of private gatherings and events as the car is developed, experiencing its creative and technical journey before taking delivery.
Each of the 100 cars will be individually tailored to its owner, with a bespoke colour and material palette that will not appear on any other Rolls-Royce model. Deliveries begin in 2028, with global testing starting this summer.
READ MORE: Rolls-Royce Launches Phantom Arabesque: The First-Ever Laser-Engraved Bonnet
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