Bentley wants to “create another segment” with its first fully electric vehicle – a luxury SUV that is scheduled to come onto the market in 2026.
Details are still relatively sparse, but Chief Communications Officer Wayne Bruce says the as-yet-unnamed electric car will be truly unique and will be at the lower end of the Bentley price spectrum.
“With this first urban luxury city SUV we will create another segment. There is nothing like it… the size and shape, the quality of workmanship and the performance at this price,” said Bruce Daily Sparkz.
“It won’t be money for the Bentayga Speed. That hasn’t been decided yet, but it will be the entry-level money for the Bentayga.”
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To put this into perspective, the Bentayga starts in Australia at $412,600 before on-road costs for the base V8, while the upcoming Bentayga Speed costs $513,600 plus on-road costs. Therefore, Bentley’s electric “city SUV” will likely cost less than $450,000.
Bentley has already confirmed that it will be smaller than the Bentayga, which is 5.1 meters long in standard version. Therefore, the electric vehicle is likely to be similar in size to the Audi Q6 e-tron and the Porsche Macan Electric, with which it shares a platform.
However, don’t expect Bentley’s electric vehicle to feel like a rebadged Volkswagen Group product. Rather, the new SUV will be inspired by the adventurous EXP 15 sedan concept, which was presented in July.
“It’s a completely different kind of Bentley,” Mr Bruce said.
“It is slightly smaller than the Bentayga and has a much more advanced design language.
“When you sit in it, it’s still recognizable as a Bentley, but it moves forward again. It’s something you’ll want, even if you’ve never thought about an electric car before.”
“Some of the car’s features were teased in EXP 15.”
Key features of the EXP 15 include a genre-bending exterior design, a digital front grille, a three-seat cabin layout, a full-width digital dashboard that can be switched off and rotated to reveal a wood veneer finish, and the heavy use of materials such as natural wood, silk jacquard and woven metal.
The battery and motor configuration for Bentley’s first electric foray is still secret, but the British brand has confirmed that its first electric vehicle can regain 100 miles (161 km) of range in just 6.5 minutes of charging – a figure that suggests a DC fast charging capability of over 350 kW.
Power could come from the same large 108kWh lithium-ion battery and two electric motors found in the new Porsche Cayenne Electric, producing up to 850kW of power and 1500Nm of torque in premium turbo form. The same model can also sprint from 0 to 100 km/h in a claimed 2.5 seconds and travel 623 km between charges.
All will be revealed in 2026 when Bentley officially unveils the first of its many new electric models.
The car will be designed and developed in the UK and produced at the brand’s headquarters in Crewe, about an hour south of Manchester.
Bentley had originally planned to launch its first electric vehicle this year and to launch a new electric model annually until 2030. However, these plans were then scaled back due to market conditions and changing regulations.
At the beginning of 2024, Bentley’s then CEO Adrian Hallmark attributed the delayed market launch of the electric crossover to technical problems that Porsche and Audi had encountered during the development of the joint Premium Electric (PPE) platform.
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