Mythbusting the world of EVs: do luxury electric cars need a long range?

MYTH: Super luxury EVs need a long range

Rolls-Royce and Bentley are both talking about selling electric cars. Talking, but not doing. Apparently they await the battery technology that would satisfy their customers. Well, duh, it’s already here.

What is a Rolls-Royce powertrain about? Smoothness, silence, instant response, seamless and generous torque. Remind you of anything? Ah yes, an electric motor. CS Rolls and Henry Royce and all their successors have been working diligently since 1906 to build a petrol engine/gearbox combo that’s as smooth as, as silent as and as responsive as the powertrain in a 2011 Nissan Leaf.

Bentley and Rolls-Royce are worried about range. They currently build cars that can comfortably drive from Knightsbridge to St Tropez or St Moritz in a day, and they think it’ll look like failure if their EVs can’t do the same. I wonder. Their owners can do that, but they almost never do. You and I might sit in a car all day, humming down the autoroutes, slurping coffee out of a (reusable) plastic cup and getting sandwich crumbs in our laps just so we don’t waste a minute stationary. The mega-rich don’t. They take the jet.

Anyway, Rolls-Royce and Bentley owners all have multiple cars. For the odd long road trip they can use another one. Probably a petrol Rolls or Bentley.