Rolls-Royce threatens to blacklist EV flippers

It's one strike and you're out at Rolls-Royce.

The ultraluxury brand says anyone caught reselling its first electric vehicle, the Spectre, for profit will be banned for life.

"They're going immediately on a blacklist and this is it — you will never ever have the chance to acquire again," Rolls-Royce CEO Torsten Müller-Ötvös told Car Dealer magazine.

Deliveries of the Spectre, which costs about £350,000 ($450,000) and has a 320-mile driving range, are scheduled to start in the fourth quarter of 2023. The aerodynamic electric coupe has amassed so many orders that Müller-Ötvös is already talking about needing to increase production.

He compared the cachet of being seen in a Spectre, which will be the first EV from any ultraluxury brand, to that of carrying the first Apple iPhone in 2007.

Anyone who wants to place an order for the car has to go through a detailed vetting process with Rolls-Royce, the CEO said, adding that 40 percent of buyers are new to the brand.

Despite Müller-Ötvös' threats against flipping the car, prominent U.K. supercar dealer Tom Hartley says he already has agreed to buy two Spectres from customers.

"Money talks, and manufacturers will never stop successful entrepreneurs, businessmen and aristocrats from selling their cars," Hartley told Car Dealer. "I do not think it is fair for carmakers to tell customers who have spent close to half a million pounds on a car what they can do with it. It's not right."