The new Bentley Torcal bridges ultra-luxury with Stuttgart hardware

24 September 2026

This is it. The moment has finally arrived when Bentley, known for wood shavings, hand-stitched hides, and the deep-chested burble of a giant V8, has to face the music. That moment even has its own name - the Torcal. It is the fourth model line in Bentley's portfolio and its very first production electric vehicle.

Bentley fans have spent most of the last decade dreading the day Crewe would swap eight-cylinder rumble for silent battery power, but the reality is actually way, way more unapologetic. Rather than trying to hide its real electric heartbeat, Bentley has leaned hard into what it is so good at: building an outrageously fast, opulent library on wheels, ready to cross continents without spilling a drop of Earl Grey.

The newest Bentley uses the same Premium Platform Electric (PPE) hardware found in the Porsche Cayenne. And yet, the Torcal is no badge-engineering exercise. The electric Cayenne trades on clinical German precision and razor-sharp lap times, but Crewe took one look at Stuttgart's hyper-stiff chassis and decided that all this aggression was entirely the wrong brief for a Bentley.

Martin Page and his chassis engineering team softened the dual-valve active suspension, intentionally reintroducing controlled body roll and pitch so that driver and passengers feel a progressive, distinctly human heave. It uses fully active dampers that raise and lower independently at each corner, eliminating mechanical anti-roll bars and delivering a signature magic carpet glide over broken tarmac.

But when you unleash both permanent-magnet synchronous motors, any illusion that this is a gentle cruiser evaporates instantly. The "base" model kicks off with 821 PS and 881 lb-ft of earth-moving twist, delivering the 0 to 60 mph sprint in 3.3 seconds. Step up to a bit sharper Torcal S, and peak output goes up to 888 PS and 996 lb-ft of torque during launch control.

That slings this 6,162 lb British cottage from a standstill to 60 mph in a blinding 2.8 seconds - before hitting an electronically governed top speed of 162 mph. During the unveiling last night, the Crewe team admitted the Torcal could have been tuned to be much faster off the line, but engineers drew a line in the sand because anything violent enough to peel your retinas off was deemed way too vulgar for their clientele.

Stretching exactly 197 inches in total length, the Torcal is surprisingly compact by modern grand touring standards - it is around 5.3 inches shorter than a Bentayga, which spans 201.8 inches end to end. It sits in a fascinating middle ground between the sportier Porsche Cayenne Electric at roughly 194.1 inches and the titanic Range Rover Electric, which towers over both with a length of 198.8 inches in standard guise (and a massive 206.8 inches in long-wheelbase trim).

Despite this comparatively trimmed posture, the Bentley packages a decent 16.2 ft³ of trunk volume alongside a handy 3.18 ft³ frunk. Even better, standard four-wheel steering adds up to five degrees of rear-axle angle, resulting in a surprisingly tight 36.4 ft turning circle that allows this luxury express to squeeze through narrow city streets like a hot hatch.

The Torcal is a Bentley through and through, instantly recognizable by anyone seeing it for the first time. Design Director Robin Page pulled styling cues from last year's EXP 15 concept, giving the Torcal an upright nose that pays homage to the legendary Turbo R. Twin vertical LED elements frame the sleek horizontal running lamps, and together with the illuminated grille surround, they make sure that when you look into your rearview mirror, you know you're being followed by royalty.

Because an electric architecture needs far less upfront cooling, the signature mesh grille has evolved into an illuminated matrix of crystal diamonds - a feature that is about to become the shared visual identity across all future Bentleys, regardless of whether they burn petrol or electrons. The cabin tapers backward into muscular rear arches in a shape that designers affectionately call the "resting beast," mimicking the muscular stance of Woolf Barnato's famous 1930 Speed Six. It really is imposing, unmistakably British, and surprisingly resolved in person.

When you step over the illuminated treadplates, you enter a cabin that rejects the depressing modern trend of slapping generic, fingerprint-magnet touchscreens across every flat surface. Sure, there's a sweeping curved OLED screen right ahead of the driver, but Bentley's interior team pointedly refused to install a passenger display, arguing that front-seat copilot monitors add zero value until cars can drive themselves at Level 4 autonomy. Fair point.

Instead, your fingers meet cold knurled metal knobs, traditional mechanical bullseye vents, and physical toggle switches. The tactile experience is incredible and probably, on its own, worth the price. Sustainability gets clever treatment here: alongside 15 shades of olive-tanned hides and Dinamica microfiber, Bentley collaborated with historic Somerset mill Fox Brothers to weave the world's first automotive-certified 100% Merino wool fabric.

Mulliner - Bentley's in-house coachbuilding division - has also crafted an exquisite Ombré Walnut veneer by compressing up to 1,000 wafer-thin layers of scrap walnut and recycled craft paper, sliced under 0.04 inches thick to create a seamless gradient from deep smoky black to warm natural timber. The attention to detail and the amount of work that went into creating the interior is simply ridiculous.

Powering this rolling palace is the same 800V electrical system we have in the Cayenne Turbo, together with the 113 kWh battery pack (108 kWh usable). That is good for up to 375 miles of range on the European WLTP testing cycle. Some long-range cruisers have theoretical figures closer to the 500-mile mark, but Bentley refused to install an oversized battery that would ruin the car's dynamics.

Any road-trip anxiety should be left back at home (or the mansion rather) courtesy of blistering 400 kW DC charging speeds. If you can find an ultra-rapid charging stall with enough power, then you can hammer the battery from 10% to 80% SoC in about 16 minutes - it means roughly 100 miles of driving freedom in about seven minutes.

I'm a bit skeptical about the next part, because synthetic sound in modern EVs is usually a cringeworthy affair with spaceship whooshes and digital engine samples piped through speakers. There are exceptions to this rule (like the new Honda Super-N), and it seems Crewe took an eccentric route here.

To give drivers acoustic feedback, sound engineers brought actual musicians into the studio with bass guitars, violas, and drums, and used the deep rhythmic cadence of the historic 0.2384 ft³ pushrod V8 as their baseline tempo. The result is the Bentley Dynamic Symphony: an organic, low-frequency mechanical pulse that rises with speed and throttle demand.

It apparently anchors your senses without sounding like a video game, although you can silence it with a tap if you prefer pure, pin-drop silence. Or you can, of course, crank up the 28-speaker, 1,780W Naim audio setup with seat-mounted "kinaesthetic shakers" (motors that rumble your seats - yes, really) and front headrest speakers running Dolby Atmos 7.1.

When it comes to the very important market positioning, the Torcal hits the luxury scene with surgical precision. Starting at £173,300 for the standard car and rising to £199,300 for the S variant, it settles into price parity with the high-spec Bentayga V8S. That makes it a bargain compared to the £350,000 Rolls-Royce Spectre.

Obviously, the Torcal offers more prestige, exclusivity, and interior artisan pedigree than top-end versions of the Mercedes-Maybach EQS SUV or BMW iX M70. It also ends up being the design-led alternative to the electric Range Rover, focused on high-net-worth buyers and celebrities who find a Porsche badge a touch too clinical, but wouldn't dream of parking any mass-market German commuter on their driveway.

The Torcal is a fascinating course correction from Bentley. After walking back its ambitious pledge to abandon internal combustion by 2030, Bentley poured £350 million into upgrading its Crewe headquarters. Thanks to that decision, its manufacturing lines can assemble fully electric powertrains right alongside petrol and hybrid models on the same floor.

The Torcal will be the firm's only pure EV for the rest of this decade, giving wealthy adopters an electric flagship, and petrolheads can continue to enjoy V8 plug-in hybrid options. A supercar-slaying electric Bentley wrapped in tailored Savile Row wool wants to prove that walking away from fossil fuels doesn't have to mean surrendering its soul. Is it right?

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