Bentley will call its first completely electric car the Torcal. The SUV will be revealed in London on 23 September. Here’s what we know so far.
The company released a single teaser image of the rear on Monday and confirmed little else. No pricing, no power figures, no interior. But, it’s Bentley, so we’ll bite.
What is known: the Torcal measures under five metres, sits below the Bentayga, and rides on Volkswagen Group’s PPE platform shared with the electric Porsche Cayenne and Audi Q6 e-tron. Bentley claims more than 480km of range and charging that adds roughly 160km in seven minutes.
A combustion version will not be built. The car was developed in Crewe under the internal code name D-Love, with the production name referencing El Torcal de Antequera, a limestone formation in southern Spain.
The Torcal becomes Bentley’s fourth model line alongside the Continental GT, Flying Spur and Bentayga, and it arrives as demand for luxury EVs softens. Lamborghini shelved its Lanzador, Ferrari recently delayed its second electric model, following a mixed response to the Luce, and Audi discontinued the Q8 e-tron.
Bentley, meanwhile, pushed its own all-electric deadline from 2030 to 2035.
Chairman and chief executive Dr Frank-Steffen Walliser defended the late arrival when he spoke to Forbes Australia at Bentley’s Crewe headquarters earlier this year.
“A luxury brand of our scale does not benefit from being early to a transition the rest of the industry has mispriced. We benefit from being right,” Walliser said.
Hybrids will stay in the range until at least 2035 and combustion models will continue where regulation permits. “Choice is the strategy,” Walliser said. “No one who today prefers a Bentayga with a V8 is forced into a new car.”
The Torcal will sit alongside the existing range rather than replace anything in it. Hybrids will stay in the line-up until at least 2035 and combustion models will continue where markets and regulation allow.
The electric car will also make noise. Walliser said the company had “made a bold decision: every Bentley will have sound”, including the Torcal, though he is holding back the detail of how it was developed until closer to launch.
More details will be released in the build-up to the September reveal. Australian timing and pricing are unconfirmed.
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