Bentley is showing off its design vision for future vehicles, starting with its first EV set to debut next year.
Even with automakers paring back full electrification plans over the coming years, luxury marques like Bentley are still keeping an eye toward the future. It is still keeping its hybridized V8 offerings around for awhile, despite discontinuing the long-running W12 from its lineup, while this EXP 15 concept is meant to show what Bentley’s next era will look like — and it’s certainly different to what we’ve known the brand to be over the decades.
In fact, Bentley brought out a 1930 Speed Six Gurney Nutting Sportsman coupe, called the “Blue Train”, to prove just that point. The company’s designers took inspiration from its century-long heritage, and you can see that in the long hoodline and low roof. However, the EXP 15 also gets an imposing front-end design with a large hexagonal grille flanked by thin LED headlights, cues which look nothing like the older Bentleys, or even any modern ones for that matter. Instead of a series of swooping curves, this concept also gets its fair share of angles and creases that accentuate the car’s size and its profile.
The Pallas Gold paint is another modern touch in itself. Not just because it’s a hue you might expect on a luxury car, but because its ultra-thin aluminum pigment allows the safety radar devices to work by transmitting through it without losing signal quality.
It may not be quite as polarizing as Jaguar’s recent makeover, but this new concept’s exterior styling will probably split Bentley fans on whether it’s the right direction. One indisputably cool element, at least as far as I’m concerned, is the Flying B emblem on the hood, positioned just above the typical Bentley badge. And, even being an electric car, it does still at least have a grille (of sorts). Even though it’s not strictly necessary for cooling, Bentley design director Robin Page notes it still has strong cues like the vertical line down the center, and it presents “an opportunity to create a piece of digital art.”
The EXP 15’s exterior is a fun opening act, but then there’s the interior.
It wouldn’t be a proper concept if the Bentley EXP 15 didn’t have an outlandish interior, and it certainly does. First off, it only has three seats, to match the car’s door configuration, with one on the passenger side and two on the driver’s side. Not only does the wider door offer better accommodation for that one rear seat, but the seat itself even rotates 45 degrees to help that passenger get in and out. That creates a more gracious experience and Bentley, knowing all too well the sort of clientele who might shop its electric cars, says “you can just get out with dignity and the Instagram shot is perfect.”
The extra space in front of the single rear passenger, then, can be used for toting luggage or even pets. Beyond just creating luxury through space, though, the EXP 15 is packed with other cool touches like the glowing glass lamp and wood veneer on the “wing-shaped” dashboard. Behind the center screen, there’s the “Mechanical Marvel” centerpiece: a dial that resembles a radial plane engine and can show the state of charge or the direction of travel, among other functions. At the back, Bentley offers up more cargo space in the EXP 15 concept, as well as a picnic-style setup for outdoor parties.
We won’t see production versions of the EXP 15 on the roads…but we will see an electric Bentley soon.
Packed within the host of small touches Bentley brings to the EXP 15 concept, there are cues that will ultimately make it to the brand’s first production EV. We expect to see the actual production car emerge next year, likely as a small SUV rather than a huge sedan. The latter would fit a bit more into Bentley’s history, but given where the luxury market currently is, we should see the better-selling car debut in 2026 before anything else.
