EXP15 showcases electric Bentleys of the future
Bentley plans to switch completely to electric drive by 2035. The British Volkswagen subsidiary currently only has plug-in hybrids in its range, but the luxury brand would like to unveil its first fully electric series model in 2026. To show what an electric Bentley could look like, the design department launched the EXP15 concept.
Currently, the concept leans heavily towards the aesthetics. When it comes to technology, Bentley simply states that it is a GT of the 21st century, whose electric drive train is intended to impress “with sustainable lightness and effortless power delivery”. However, the British-German company did not provide any specific information regarding performance, battery technology, range or platform.
The British have already announced that their first purely electric car will be a ‘luxury urban SUV’. Some of its details are likely to be reflected in the production model, but the EXP15 does not belong to this vehicle category. The concept car has the proportions – albeit quite leggy – but a classic SUV is undoubtedly different. Instead, the EXP15 seems more like a mix of an SUV, a hatchback sedan and a coupe – with Bentley following the crossover trend.
The manufacturer states that the three-seat Bentley Speed Six “Blue Train” served as inspiration. The original is a prominent part of the brand’s history: in March 1930, a Speed Six Saloon is said to have won a race against an express train. The racing driver and Bentley board member Woolf Barnato bet that he could use one to drive from Cannes to London faster than the ‘Train Bleue’, one of the most famous express trains of the time. In fact, Barnato’s Bentley is said to have reached the British capital a few minutes before the train entered Calais station. As a homage to this duel, Bentley created the sleek three-seater a few months later based on the winning car.
The inspiration is especially apparent from the EXP15’s curved roofline,but there are also certain parallels with Jaguar’s polarizing Type 00 concept car when viewed in profile
Otherwise, the Bentley appears emphatically futuristic. The massive upright front is dominated by an illuminated “radiator grille”, which in times of e-mobility is less a technical necessity than a symbolic design feature: “Grilles used to be all about getting air to the combustion engine through the front of the car. But now with light technology changing we have an opportunity to create a piece of digital art. So the grille stays as our iconic front”, says Bentley’s chief designer Robin Page. Above the grill sits a new interpretation of the ‘Flying B’, the traditional brand logo.
Four particularly narrow strips of light nestle on the flanks of the front, giving contour to the massive face. Bentley took a similar approach with the light strips at the rear, which were also kept thin. The long hood, which was originally due to the large combustion engines, should also be retained in the electric age for reasons of identity. This feature is also pronounced in EXP15.
When it came to the basic layout of the interior, in which Bentley combined digital and haptic controls, the designers were again inspired by the ‘Blue Train’. The EXP15 is also a three-seater in which the driver sits on the far right in the front row, while the passenger can choose his position thanks to the electronically movable and rotatable seat.
He can either position himself next to the rider or sit back in the second row. There is another single seat for a third passenger there, on the driver’s side the EXP15 has a conventional but wide-opening door, while on the other side Bentley has planned externally hinged suicide doors. This asymmetrical arrangement, like many other details in the study, is unlikely to make it into the series.
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