BARGAIN OF THE YEAR
Dacia Spring
LUXURY CAR OF THE YEAR
Rolls-Royce Spectre
Don’t laugh. OK, laugh then. A Rolls-Royce beside a Dacia. The most expensive usable electric car against the cheapest. I say usable so as to disqualify the outliers, the electric hypercars and the Citroen Ami. But apart from both acting as respective bookends of the price dimension, they have something else in common. Each, more so than cars in between, is a compelling use for electric power.
Rolls-Royce has spent 117 years perfecting petrol propulsion, culminating in a twin-turbo V12 with an eight-speed auto box that can time its shifts by reading the road ahead via its satnav. This marvel of a powertrain conveys a new Phantom with smoothness and silence that almost matches that in the Dacia’s relative, an 11-year-old Renault Zoe. So electricity is the necessary next step for Rolls-Royce.
Also, Rolls owners won’t worry about their EV’s range. The 240 miles that we got on open roads should do nicely. These people won’t be bothered by the potential hassles of on-trip replenishing (yes, I did spend an hour with it or concierge will sort the charging for them. The helpful fellows on the door of the Corinthia Hotel, where we photographed the car, would have been only too delighted.
