It’s been an interesting run for Bentley under Volkswagen Group ownership, from re-engineering the Arnage and the 6.75-liter V8 to launching the original Phaeton-based Continental GT, from developing the Bentayga and a fresh W12 engine to the plug-in hybrids of today. There are now more parts being shared among models than ever before, yet quality materials and attention to detail is reason to buy a Bentayga over, say, an Audi RSQ8. However, with the first electric model around the corner, the brand is taking a dramatic visual turn. This isn’t it, but it is the Bentley EXP 15, and it’s about to dictate what future Bentleys look like.
Yes, we’re looking at the first Bentley concept in five years, the last being the EXP 100 GT that previewed the single-lamp look seen on cars from the Bacalar to the new Continental GT. While that was a pure concept of what a Bentley might look like in 2035, the EXP 15 is meant to be a rough preview of cues we’ll see on Bentley’s first electric vehicle, debuting in 2026.
Back in Bentley’s Le Mans days, Ettore Bugatti called the British brand’s 3 Litre model “the fastest lorry in the world,” and there’s something similarly imposing about the EXP 15. While some automakers have sculpted their battery packs to accommodate a reasonably low hip point, Bentley is leaning into the presence of a big pack under the floor with tall coachwork to match the thick sills. Touches like beveling the doors where they meet the sill and serving up a crisp character line running into massive haunches prevent the EXP 15 from looking like a brick, yet the end result serves up mass not seen in a Bentley since the Mulsanne. Fantastic.
Up front, I can’t help but get shades of a Zeekr 009 vibe thanks to the upright body-color grille. Any comparison to a Chinese-market luxury minivan is likely unintentional, and the hood-to-valence vertical lighting elements draw rather literal lines of distinction. Around back, a plunging roofline swoops down to a kammtail with giant yet wafer-thin C-shaped taillights. If you’re getting a whiff of tech influence, just wait until you see the interior.
Yep, we’re looking at a Bentley with extensive use of cloth. Specifically, a wool textile from Fox Brothers and a silk jacquard from Gainsborough adding contrast against titanium surfaces and leather. Traditional, yet modern, considering the trendy move away from all-hide everything. Speaking of trends, ambient lighting makes an appearance here, but it’s different from what you get in a Magic City Maybach. Bentley has made this metal mesh embedded in acrylic that’s then backlit to provide an architectural feeling, and the result is far more subtle than most uses of light inside a modern vehicle. Sure, the three-seat layout is pure flight of fancy, and that steering wheel probably isn’t housing an airbag, but there’s lots here that could potentially make it to production cars.
While the Bentley EXP 15 isn’t traditionally beautiful, it feels traditionally Bentley despite the big leap of an all-electric all-wheel-drive powertrain. Although the actual production electric Bentley won’t be this size and probably won’t be quite this monolithic, this glimpse gives the one percent something to get excited about.
Top graphic image: Bentley
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I’m glad I can’t afford that because I have no interest in it.
I wish I could afford this because I hate it and wouldn’t buy it and then I would still have all that money
I’d call up Torch and get some tips on tastefully applying a chainsaw, sledge, and maybe an oxy cutter to fix it up.
“The great ships hung motionless in the sky, over every nation on Earth. Motionless they hung, huge, heavy, steady in the sky, a blasphemy against nature. Many people went straight into shock as their minds tried to encompass what they were looking at. The ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don’t. And still nothing happened. Then there was a slight whisper, a sudden spacious whisper of open ambient sound. Every hi-fi set in the world, every radio, every television, every cassette recorder, every woofer, every tweeter, every mid-range driver in the world quietly turned itself on. Every tin can, every dustbin, every window, every car, every wineglass, every sheet of rusty metal became activated as an acoustically perfect sounding board. Before the Earth passed away it was going to be treated to the very ultimate in sound reproduction, the greatest public address system ever built. But there was no concert, no music, no fanfare, just a simple message. “People of Earth, your attention, please,” a voice said, and it was wonderful. Wonderful perfect quadraphonic sound with distortion levels so low as to make a brave man weep. “This is Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz of the Galactic Hyperspace Planning Council,” the voice continued. “As you will no doubt be aware, the plans for development of the outlying regions of the Galaxy require the building of a hyperspatial express route through your star system, and regrettably your planet is one of those scheduled for demolition. The process will take slightly less than two of your Earth minutes. Thank you.”– Douglas Adams, “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”
Does this mean the infotainment system comes preloaded with terrible poetry?
“Always know where your towel is”, comes in handy when you spit-puke.
About a third of the way in I was expecting the story to veer int “all the sound reproduction devices to emit an earsplitting flatulent sound”.
I have driven a number of Bentleys, of vintages from 1924 to 2000. This doesn’t even come close to having the slightest bit of those automobiles’ characters. In fact, I’m not sure it has any character at all.
It is for the pompous, the pretentious, and the poseurs. I strongly doubt W.O. would approve. The bar of Ivory in my shower is more attractive, even without all the state-of-the-moment lighting design and whatever one wants to call that thing that sits in place of a grille.
But it’s electric, which I suppose counts for something today. Sorry, that doesn’t count for enough.
On the bright side when the battery on one of these fails and the car goes up in flames it’s a good thing.
I wonder if manufacturers are just slapping this crap together putting it on a boat that catches on fire and sinks and the insurance money is MSRP and they get a sale and no warranty complaints.
After all with all the millionaires and billionaires leaving Britain no one is left to buy these.
If it isn’t traditionally beautiful, does that make it unconventionally hideous?
No it has a great personality
It has a cute friend.
So many people complain when a production model looks nothing like the concept. In this case that would be a feature, not a bug.
Remember when Bentley showed the first concept for the Bentayga (EXP 9F) – which was nothing less than a modern reproduction of a Studebaker Lark Wagon?
The EXP 9F looked much better than the Bentayga. The greenhouse in particular. The only thing that the Bentayga has to keep it from be totally embarrassing is that no can remember what it looks like, other than sort of like a Chrysler. If you must rob a bank in a six figure luxury car, it’s the one that nobody will remember how to describe, yet in spite of of its anonymity it still manages to to be ugly.
But this has an ugliness that is memorable, like a misspelled lower back tattoo in comic sans.
On a positive note, the incontinence garment covering the grill area surely must be a subtle poke at tha cat’s anus design of recent Lexus grills, and I appreciate the joke.
How the mighty have fallen…
Looks like the latest Ninja kitchen appliance.
I’d at least be okay with one of those on my kitchen counter.
Not this mess.
Say what you will. That car definitely has presence. Showing off that while having money, getting dirty hands doing things like driving isn’t beneath them.
*Looks at British Luxury Automakers*
“Can’t you be normal FOR FIVE MINUTES”
screams with mouth full of crumpets
While I don’t like the grille, that texture is an interesting direction that has my attention.
I like the rear lighting and what I see of the interior. But the rest really is…something.
Its a far worse looking Polestar
I was going to say that Polestar/Volvo wants their rear end back.
Yep, the back looks like a C40.
Well Polestar is owned by Geely, which also owns Zeekr, and there is some serious Zeekr 09 in that front end.
I was going to say my Polestar 2 wants it taillights back haha
I’ve been wondering if one of the big luxury brands might do a REV with a small straight-six generator. Electric torque with gas range from an inherently balanced engine run at a specified RPM (making noise cancellation easier) just seems like a best of both worlds for a brand that values smooth and quiet motivation and isn’t afraid of complexity or maintenance costs.
A good set of walking shoes are cheaper, better looking and far more practical.
Is this some part of strategy to kill off Jag and Bentley by ruining the brand images of both, then sell them off to OEMs out of China. Hmmm (takes off tinfoil hat)
I like the Jag better
*everyone hated that*
The Venn diagram of buyers for this is almost a perfect overlap of people who “have currently or previously been subject to international sanctions in their name, specifically.”
The all-new Bentley Sanction Sanctorum.
Bentley taking a page from the Tasman’s whale-inspired playbook.
Looks like they got the jag concept good and hot, smooshed it into the mold that the Crown came out of then slapped in the tail lights from a Polestar. I’m sure if they make it expensive enough they’ll be all over Newport Beach.
Oooh, metal mesh interior?
As a person who aspires to jump straight from a Civic to a Bentley, this will make the leap a little less jarring.
I’m trying really hard to chew back the vomit that keeps rising in my throat. That’s not even a car anymore, it’s bad architecture; and I’ve seen more attractive 1970s-era government buildings.
leave brutalist out of this
I’m not a fan of Brutalist Architecture either, but this has all the sex appeal of a DMV that’s passed through a large intestine.
“What if we stole BMW’s bucktooth grille and filled in the middle?”
“That’s gold, Jerry! GOLD!”
“So is the paint!”
I was going to comment BMW wants their giant nose nostril holes back.
Are we entering (or already in) a brutalist automotive design era?
It’s the McMansion era.
I got the full on press packages, there is something Blue Train about this thing, combined with my 8 litre. Bentley have been doing Brutalism for a long time!
Funny, the vibe to me is shredded cheese.
Yet there’s no pizza oven in the dash.
HOW IS THIS LUXURY WITHOUT A BUILT-IN PIZZA OVEN?!