Luxury vehicles and electrification are seemingly a match made in heaven. Luxurious cars aim to be smooth and quiet, both qualities most electric powertrains are more than adept at. However, not all electric powertrains are created equal, and not all are inherently silent. Just like how not all electric powertrains are equally silent, spending more on an EV isn’t always a one-to-one return on driving range.
Rolls-Royce Spectre Range
The EPA numbers for Rolls-Royce’s first EV, the 2024 Spectre, have been released, and for an EV that starts at $422,750, the Spectre’s range isn’t any more impressive than vehicles much, much farther downmarket.
The Spectre Black Badge fitted with 23-inch wheels earns the worst rating from the EPA, with an estimated range of 264 miles. Skip the Black Badge treatment, and that figure increases by two miles. Riding on 22-inch wheels, the Black Badge Spectre is rated at 280 miles of range, while the standard Spectre riding on 22-inchers has the best estimate of 291 miles.
Those figures stack up with the BMW i7, with which the Spectre shares a 102.0-kWh battery. During our 75-mph highway fuel-economy test route, we managed to coax 260 miles out of our i7 xDrive60 test vehicle, which was equipped with 21-inch wheels.
So the numbers aren’t great for the Spectre, but does that really matter? You could spend a fraction of the price for something like the Genesis Electrified G80, with an EPA-estimated range of 282 miles. But do Rolls-Royce customers really need more than 300 miles? For shorter trips, they’re more likely to break out the palanquin; for trips that require refueling, they’ll probably just call the chopper.
Range likely isn’t the target statistic for a Rolls-Royce customer—but luxury is. After our first drive earlier this year, we described the Spectre as “so silent that to experience it is to ruin every other vehicle, including the rest of the Rolls lineup.”
Source : CarAndDriver
