Latest news with #BentleySpeedSixGurneyNuttingSportsman
TimesLIVE
10-07-2025
- Automotive
- TimesLIVE
New Bentley EXP 15 hints at the brand's luxurious electric future
Bentley has unveiled a striking ultraluxury electric concept car with three seats and an interior that artfully blends mechanical and digital elements. Revealed at Bentley's new design studio in Crewe, England, the EXP 15 is not intended for production but hints at the British brand's future styling direction. The EXP 15 takes inspiration from Bentley's early 20th century grand tourer heritage and interprets it in a modern way. The concept car has an iconic upright grille, long 'endless' bonnet and rearward cabin reminiscent of the 1930 Bentley Speed Six Gurney Nutting Sportsman coupé, often known as the 'Blue Train'. This famous Bentley was used by then-company chair Woolf Barnato to beat a luxury express train (Le Train Bleu) in a race from Cannes to Calais in France. The concept has modern exterior surfacing, hi-tech lighting and active aerodynamic elements. Its big party trick, however, is it has three seats and three doors to provide extra legroom for the special few and has in-cabin storage for pets and hand luggage. 'Twin coach doors and part of the panoramic roof open upwards on the passenger side to allow smoother entry and exit via a passenger side seat that can swivel 45° outwards. This allows passengers to disembark with dignity for that perfect Instagram shot,' according to Darren Day, Bentley's head of interior design. 'If you look at the car we built for Her Majesty the Queen, it was designed around the aperture of the door and 'the art of arrival'. It was important for us to create that feeling here, too,' said Day. Image: Supplied The three-position passenger seat can be moved forward next to the driver in Co-pilot mode, slid back to the rear seat or reclined for Relax mode. When the car is parked, the boot space can be used as upmarket picnic seating. Under the large rear hatch are two small seats that can deploy with a fridge stocked with cold drinks, which can slide back from the rear seats for luxury tailgate parties. The cabin mixes physical features with futuristic digital elements that can be brought to the fore or melt away into the background. This includes an update of Bentley's Rotating Dashboard, which can reveal an infotainment screen or rotate back to a solid dashboard surface. The boot can be transformed into a seating area. Image: Supplied The EXP 15's full-width dashboard can act as a digital interface for infotainment or switch off to reveal a veneered wood surface visible underneath the glass. Also mounted behind the screen is a clock-like device with multiple movable and illuminated fingers — which Bentley refers to as the 'Mechanical Marvel' as it can indicate the car's direction of travel, the state of its electric charge and much more — or just be a centrepiece to look upon. Robin Page, Bentley director of design, said: 'We think people are going to get fed up with a fully digital experience and are pining for physical mechanical elements. By combining the two, you can get the best of both worlds. It's almost like wearing a beautiful mechanical watch on one wrist and a digital watch on the other. Page added that the concept car positioned the brand's new design language and also tested where the market was 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. 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.' EXP 15 is conceived as having a fully electric, all-wheel drive powertrain with a long range and quick recharging speeds, but Bentley gave no further technical details.
NDTV
09-07-2025
- Automotive
- NDTV
Bentley EXP 15 Concept Gives Sneak Peek At Brand's Production EV
Bentley is stepping into the future with the EXP 15 concept, which is a massive departure from the brand's conventional design. It is a full-size exterior model complemented by a similar interior created using virtual reality. This also points in the direction in which the heritage brand is headed regarding its first future electric vehicle. Although the brand has dropped its full EV transition plan, they are working on bringing the first of their production EV by next year and the EXP 15 concept gives us an idea of what to expect. Bentley EXP 15 Concept: Exterior The Bentley EXP 15 concept comes with a silhouette associated with grand styling which still stands apart from conventional designs. To begin with, the concept gets a raised stance typically seen on an SUV but with a sloping roofline towards the rear. It is inspired by the 1930 Bentley Speed Six Gurney Nutting Sportsman coupe. To add to its clean design, all the surfaces are smooth with a sharp crease connecting the headlight to the base of the side windows and rear overhang. The front end still seems to be carrying the right genes from the Bentley DNA with upright fascia. To blend it with modern aesthetics, it has been loaded with an illuminated hexagonal grille. There's also an arrage of triangular elements that seem to mimic crosshairs of a Bentley grille with a central spine. Atop this grille is the brand's new badge placed right below the hood ornament. On either side of the grille, the brand has placed vertically oriented LED headlights, similar trim piece is placed at the edge of the doors of the car. There is also a vent on the sides which channels air alongside the car. Moving to the rear end are thin tail lights wrapped around the body coloured panel with the Bentley badge. The car also gets roof-top spoilers and an active rear diffuser. Bentley EXP 15 Concept: Interior The Bentley EXP 15 concept welcomes you with an asymmetrical door setup with one on the driver's side and two on the passenger's side. Similarly, there are three seats in the cabin with the driver's seat placed in the front and passenger seats on either side. The passenger side seat can rotate for easier ingress and egress. It can also be moved forward or backward. The EXP 15 features a unique "wing-shaped" dashboard design, with trim elements rising from the center console, one encasing the steering wheel and another containing gauges for the passenger. The dashboard can display a digital interface or reveal wood veneer underneath. There is a large dial behind the center screen resembling an old radial engine, along with adjustable glass components displaying information like direction and charge status. The cabin blends materials such as wool textiles and 3-D-printed titanium trim, with gold-knurled finish on the switchgear and backlit panels mirroring the grille motif. The trunk doubles as a picnic setup, featuring cushions, a fridge for champagne, and an ambient lamp. The EXP 15 also showcases Pallas Gold paint, allowing radar sensors to function without interference, maintaining the vehicle's sleek aesthetics.
Miami Herald
08-07-2025
- Automotive
- Miami Herald
Bentley EXP 15 concept previews new design direction
Bentley's latest concept car is a hulking tribute to the automaker's past that provides hints about the future. Measuring over 16 feet long, the EXP 15 is inspired by the 1930 Bentley Speed Six Gurney Nutting Sportsman coupe-better known as the "Blue Train"-but provides the first clues of the design language and tech features of Bentley's first EV, an SUV smaller than the Bentayga due to be revealed in 2026. In a press release, Bentley emphasized that the EXP 15 is not a direct preview of that SUV (or any other production vehicle, as it's a static model that isn't drivable). But "subtle design cues" from that model have been incorporated into the EXP 15's exterior, and the interior's tech features could be incorporated into future Bentley models as well. The EXP 15's namesake received its Blue Train nickname when Bentley chairman Woolf Barnato used it to race a train of that name from Cannes in the south of France to Calais in the north. Barnato made it across the English Channel to London before the train reached Calais, creating a foundational piece of Bentley lore. Ninety-five years later, the distinctive shape of the Bentley Blue Train's coachbuilt Gurney Nutting bodywork is making a comeback. Like the Blue Train, the EXP 15 isn't an SUV. But its tall body sides and upright front end work well in the current era, where SUVs continue push aside traditional cars. They combine with an elongated hood and steeply-raked back window-also prominent features of the Blue Train-to create a look intended to test customer tastes. "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." Bentley design boss Robin Page said 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." Whether a vehicle with this shape will ever roll off the production line at Bentley's United Kingdom factory is unclear, but the automaker claims some of the concept's details will. The exterior surfacing, meant to give the EXP 15 a muscular appearance, will be applied to future models, according to Bentley. The concept's exterior lighting, including headlights formed from four thin strips and LEDs arranged to suggest Bentley's current diamond-patterned grilles, hint at what's possible as well. The need to maximize range means EVs can't afford to ignore aerodynamics, so it wouldn't be surprising to see the EXP 15's front-fender vents and pair of deployable rear spoilers on a production car. The protruding taillights also help channel air around the car, Bentley claims. Less likely to reach production is the EXP 15's three-door, three-seat layout. Like an upscale Hyundai Veloster, the concept has one driver's side door and two passenger's side doors. In this case, though they're coach doors that open along with a section of the roof to make ingress and egress easier. A seat that swivels 45 degrees aids in that as well. That seat can also switch from fully upright "Co-Pilot" mode, to slid-back "Standard" mode, to reclined "Relax" mode. The EXP 15 also features an update of Bentley's current rotating central touchscreen, which can be hidden away when not in use, that now encompasses the entire dashboard. The dash can now switch from a pillar-to-pillar screen to a wood veneer without a pixel in sight. It also incorporates a physical dial that designer call the "Mechanical Marvel," which can be reconfigured to show the state of charge, direction of travel, and other information. High-end materials are expected in a Bentley, and the EXP 15 features a mix of old (silk jacquard textile woven at one of the U.K.'s oldest mills) and new (3D-printed titanium trim that reduces weight and waste compared to conventional processes). The concept's Pallas Gold paint also has an aluminum pigment that allows it to be used on bodywork that covers sensors, which would otherwise be unable to transmit through paint. Bentley didn't provide much detail on the engineering side of the EXP 15, only saying that it was designed around an all-wheel drive electric powertrain. That will soon become the norm at Bentley which, after roughly a decade of fits and starts, plans to go all-electric by 2035. That shift, heralded by a redesign of Bentley's iconic logo, will start with the aforementioned smaller SUV, but could encompass more stately models closer to the EXP 15 as Bentley builds out the lineup. Copyright 2025 The Arena Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
