‘The posh, posh travelling life, the travelling life for me,’ sang Lionel Jeffries as he soared above the clouds in his cabbage-patch thunderbox in Chitty, Chitty, Bang Bang. That’s pretty much the situation of a motoring journalist on a Rolls-Royce launch. What will Rolls-Royce owners think? Is it a nice car, is it a great car, or is it a monumental motorised khazi? We simply can’t know what they are thinking; we’re not of that set and, unlike supercar owners, those that are, tend not to hobnob with riff raff like us.
Oh, you can bluff your way through by comparing the new car with the old, or however Rolls-Royce has set out as its stall, but like most, my experience of having a Roller outside the English family home for a few short days is generally characterised less by worrying about luxurious peregrination and dinner reservations at Nobu, more about the kids scraping their bikes up the side. I simply don’t wear smart enough clothes to drive a Rolls-Royce.
But now everything has changed. Battery-electric might not be the only game in town but it is a great leveller. I suspect you might share my disappointment that Rolls-Royce’s first-ever all-electric production model isn’t a fuel cell, but the Goodwood-based company, even if it is able to draw on parent BMW’s expertise and track record in battery cars, is feeling its way along here just like everyone else.
