Bentley unveils three-seater EV concept that offers "design vision for the future"

Car brand Bentley has envisioned its upcoming electric vehicles with the EXP 15 concept car, featuring the redesigned Winged B emblem that was released last week.

Informed by the 1930 three-seater Bentley Speed Six (pictured top), the concept car was produced to "provide clues to the brand's first full-electric production car", which is set to be launched next year.

The concept car has a full exterior, while the interiors were created virtually. Bentley will use the car, which it described as a "design vision for the future", to investigate what customers want from a sedan.

"The beauty of a concept car is not just to position our new design language, but to test where the market's going," said Bentley director of design Robin Page.

"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," he continued.

"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."

The 5.4-metre-long car, which has only three seats and three doors, was designed to embody five design principles that will shape the brand's future cars.

According to Bentley, each of these principles aims to create cars that mix "classic and modern in an exhilarating and elegant" way.

The first of these is "upright elegance" relating to the front of the car, which "should display a very gently curved vertical line".

The EXP 15 concept car also displays the "endless bonnet line" – a line that continues from the bonnet down the length of the car as a reflection of its heritage vehicles.

The aim is for all of Bentley's future cars to have an "iconic grille", even though in electric cars they are no longer needed for air flow.

In the EXP 15, the grille incorporates the same diamond pattern that was introduced in the company's updated logo, alongside LED lights that illuminate the pattern.

"Grilles used to be all about getting air to the combustion engine through the front of the car," said Page.

"But now with light technology changing, we have an opportunity to create a piece of digital art. So the grille stays as our iconic front."

Another key design principle is the idea of the overall form of the car resembling a "resting beast".

"All the finest Bentleys feature rear haunches that bulge outward from the body of the car above the rear wheels, expressing their 'muscle' and potent energy, just like the rounded shape of the bent upper legs of a big cat," explained Bentley head of exterior design Domen Rucigaj.

"But a Bentley's overall stance needs to be relaxed and horizontal, not aggressively leaning forward – nor leaning back and looking 'lazy'," he continued.

"I am also focused on perfect Bentley proportions, which are divided from top to bottom into one-third for the cabin and two-thirds for the body."

The final principle – deemed "prestigious shield" – will see future Bentleys feature an uncluttered rear to showcase the car's emblem.

Alongside the physical exterior model, Bentley created a series of digital interiors using virtual reality (VR) to demonstrate possible configurations.

The interiors utilise the same diamond pattern found in the redesigned logo and the car's grille.

The car has two seats on the driver side, while the passenger seat can slide up from the rear to sit alongside the driver. This passenger seat can rotate 45 degrees to allow for a more dignified exit from the vehicle.

"The seat can rotate and you step out, totally unflustered, not trying to clamber out of the car like you see with some supercars," explained Bentley head of interior design Darren Day.

"You just get out with dignity and the Instagram shot is perfect," he continued. "If you look at the car we built for Her Majesty the Queen, it was always designed around the aperture of the door and 'the art of arrival'. It was really important for us to create that feeling here, too."

The unveiling of the EXP 15 concept car follows the launch of Bentley's new logo last week.

Only the fourth rebrand since the carmaker was founded more than a century ago, the simplified emblem was designed to usher in a "new era of Bentley design language".

The images are courtesy of Bentley.

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