You buy a Rolls Royce to be seen in. You want to be snapped heading to swanky parties and flamboyant awards ceremonies. Heck, you might even be some high-flying CEO that wants to assert their dominance by rocking up to the office in a pristine Roller. And the company knows this. It knows that any new car it makes must be able to navigate commutes or frequent journeys to fancy events.
It’s because of this that the firm puts a great deal of effort into testing to ensure that these new cars can last their predicted lifetime. And that includes its new electric vehicle, the Rolls Royce Spectre.
First unveiled in 2021, the Rolls Royce Spectre will be the brand’s first production electric vehicle, after an experimental electric Phantom concept it debuted in 2011.
The new car is currently a quarter of the way through its testing program, and Rolls Royce hopes the new EV will be ready to hit the streets in 2023.
But once it hits the streets, how long can it keep roaming those highways for? Well, Rolls Royce has alluded to the life expectancy of its cars in a release touting the progress of testing for the Spectre.
Hidden under all the eloquent language and metaphors about how a Rolls Royce should make you feel was an interesting statistic. The company said it had completed “25% of 2.5 million km testing program,” which the carmaker said would emulate “400 years of use.”
At first, 2.5m kilometers over 400 years sounds like a lot. It’s rare to hear of a car covering this distance in its lifetime, so it sounds like Rolls is eyeing some impressive reliability from the new EV.
But, on second reading it becomes a bit more conservative.
A quick bit of maths shows that 2.5m kilometres over 400 years averages out at 6,250km per year.
Less than 6,437 km a year is just 121 km a week. And 121 km a week is just over 16 km a day, and that’s nothing.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the average worker travels 24 km each way to work and commutes for almost an hour every day. So presumably Rolls Royce is banking on Spectre buyers being allowed to work from home at least two days a week?
This is, of course, all a bit silly really. The average worker isn’t the average Rolls Royce buyer. And the average Rolls Royce buyer probably doesn’t have the same travel needs as myself or you.
In fact, as a member of the super-rich, the average Rolls Royce buyer probably has a host of other toys on hand to prevent them from surpassing 121 km a week in their all-electric Spectre.
But still, that doesn’t detract from the fact that 6,437 km a year over the life of a car isn’t a lot. If the car lasts for 100 years then it still won’t match up to the distance some Land Cruisers and ageing Volvos can cover when put through their paces.
I guess it’s fair to predict that the Rolls Royce Spectre will be a special occasion car. And not a daily driver that you can use to pop to the shops.
So, while we wait for the firm to share any important details like price, range and release date for the Spectre, we have time to contemplate. Time to think about how you would use your 121 km allowance each week, where would you go? What would you do? And, who would you invite along for the ride?