Bentley’s first all-electric car arrives next year. Today, we get a preview in the form of the EXP 15, which is one of the strangest things we’ve ever seen from the British automaker. It’s a tall, three-seat electric car with two doors on the left side, and one door on the right side.
Bentley designers took inspiration from a 1930 Speed Six three-seater named “Blue Train” after a famous race owner Woolf Barnato ran against a French train. Bentley calls the EXP 15 a “sedan,” though it has a coupe profile more like a Continental GT, and indeed, the 1930 Speed Six. There’s a seat behind the (right-hand) driver’s seat, and one on the left rear of the car. In renderings, Bentley even shows a bespoke dog bed that sits ahead of the left-side passenger seat. There’s also a tailgate at the back, with in-built picnic chairs, presumably for watching polo from.
As EVs don’t need a big grille to cool an engine, Bentley instead opted for a decorative lighting element its head exterior designer, Robin Page, calls a piece of “digital art.” Like previous combustion-powered Bentleys, there’s an extremely long hood, but without an engine, Bentley had room to create two storage panels, accessed by center hinging doors.
Photo by: Bentley
Photo by: Bentley
Photo by: Bentley
Inside, there are the requisite screens across the dashboard, but Bentley is quick to point out a lot of more old-school elements. There’s physical climate and steering-wheel controls and textiles from a 250-year-old English company.
Bentley says this concept sort of exists in a space between its current models, the Continental GT coupe, the Flying Spur sedan, and the Bentayga SUV. “The beauty of a concept car is not just to position our new design language, but to test where the market’s going. It’s clear that SUVs are a growing segment and we understand the GT market—through four generations of the Continental GT—but the trickiest segment is the sedan because it’s changing,” said Page in a statement. “Some customers want a classic ‘three-box’ sedan shape, others a ‘one-box’ design, and others again something more elevated. So this was a chance for us to talk to people and get a feeling.”
At first, it feels like something of a departure for Bentley, but the EXP 15 fits in well with its past and present. Ettore Bugatti once apparently described Bentley’s 3-Litre as the “fastest lorry in the world.” Compared to Bugatti’s cars, Bentleys were hulking beasts, but they were successful in racing and beloved by enthusiasts. This big, asymmetrical concept car might be an EV, but there is no doubt it is a Bentley.
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