Proving that range anxiety only affects us poor people.
Range is a discussion that pops up with nearly every electric vehicle, but the 2024 Rolls-Royce Spectre is an outlier.
With only 260 miles of range, the Spectre falls way short of other luxury EVs that can do 300, 400, or even 500 miles on a single charge. But does that even matter? Rolls-Royce says its average client only puts around 3,000 miles per year on their cars, far less than the one million miles driven in the testing phase. On average, Rolls-Royce owners have seven other vehicles, so it's not like they don't have a backup car.
If we divide Rolls' 3,000-mile yearly average by the Spectre's 260-mile range, it works out to 11.5 charges per year. In other words, the average Spectre owner will only need to plug in once per month. Range anxiety? It's a non-issue in Rolls-Royce's world.
Looking beyond the raw mileage, the Spectre can charge up to 11 kW on a Level 2 home charger. That’s enough to fill the 102 kWh battery pack in just under 11 hours. Will the Rolls is charging, the owner can use their other vehicles. Speaking with Rhodri Good, Rolls-Royce Spectre Product & Launch Manager, we learned that customers will be given a “concierge experience” when it comes time to have a charger installed.
Rolls-Royce has partnered with Qmerit, though Good admits that some customers “might have their own person they use for such tasks.” CarBuzz even learned of a client in Europe who managed to install a 50 kW DC fast charger in their private residence.
Having a DC charger at your home is practically unheard of and likely impossible in the United States because they are cost-prohibitive and require immense amounts of hardware, but leave it to a Rolls-Royce owner to figure out how to get it done.
The best part of owning a Spectre versus a gas-powered Rolls-Royce is never having to go to a gas station and share the same space with lesser cars. Most owners will charge at home, where it's private. If they need to be somewhere beyond the Spectre's reach, they'll use the helicopter.
In the unlikely event that a Spectre driver does need to charge in public, the vehicle can reach a 190 kW peak, going from 10-80% battery in as little as 34 minutes.
Rolls-Royce has yet to start Spectre deliveries, but Good says he anticipates there will be a public partner that offers complimentary charging. As for the current charging format war between NACS and CCS, Rolls-Royce and parent company BMW Group have made no public statements about switching to the Tesla standard.
Keyword: Rolls-Royce Spectre Owners Only Need To Charge A Dozen Times A Year