Bentley is almost ready to launch its first electric car, and probably quite worried about how the world will react after the bin fire that was the Ferrari Luce’s debut. Before the grand unveiling scheduled for September 23rd, we have a moody teaser pic and a name: Bentley Torcal.
Not a reference to the pursuit of looking at fish through a pair of leaky goggles, it instead continues Bentley’s recent tradition of naming cars after ‘extraordinary landscapes.’ Streatham High Road was already taken, so it went with Torcal instead, taking its name from El Torcal de Antequera in Andalusia, Spain—a “dramatic limestone landscape of stacked rock formations, cliffs, and labyrinths,” says Bentley.
Torcal is also derived from the Latin word ‘torquere,’ meaning to twist. Which is fitting, seeing as this car will have a colossal amount of it. No official word on power outputs, charging speeds, and torque figures, only gentle hints that it’ll be five meters long and have a range of over 480km. So far, so sensible, given it’s an SUV shape smaller than the Bentayga (pictured below) and has been designed for everyday usability.
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Will the design be as divisive as the Luce? Well...no. Because I’ve been to see it and, bizarrely, I’m allowed to tell you what it looks like, without showing you what it looks like until September. The overall shape is what you’d expect—a bluff front end, quite a low-slung SUV silhouette that’s noticeably more petite than the Bentayga, but actually with more leg- and luggage room inside—because electric.
The front end is dominated by a huge grille that illuminates via a series of 3D diamonds. It’s...eye-catching, but can also be switched off if being spotted from space isn’t your thing. The rear haunches are nicely muscled, and as you can see in the teaser image, the rear lights are fairly conventional horizontal strips. The interior is magnificently appointed, of course, with a central display that curves at the bottom before meeting a row of physical switches (hooray).
Bentley boss Dr. Frank-Steffen Walliser said: “For 107 years, Bentleys have been the most incredibly complete cars—effortless performance, outstanding comfort, exquisite British handcraftsmanship using the best natural materials, and a soundtrack with soul. Our new Torcal sets extraordinary benchmarks in every area that matters, and may just be the most considered car in our history.”
First impressions? He might be right on that last bit, because in a market that’s turned against high-end EVs, Bentley has read the room and de-risked by building a right-sized, unpolarizing-looking SUV that should move the conversation away from the fact that it’s electric—because it’s a good Bentley, full stop.
NOTE: This article first appeared on TopGear.com. Minor edits have been made.
