Meet Bentley's All-Electric EXP 15 Concept, a Majestic and Menacing Vision of the Future

Yahoo

08-07-2025

Bentley just unveiled an all-electric concept, the EXP 15, and its outré appearance falls along the subjective spectrum between 'bold' and 'the designers have contracted brain worms.' It is, officially, a grand tourer (GT), but it doesn't look like any GT we've seen—or imagined.
The EXP 15 doesn't sport two doors, four seats, and a trunk, like the marque's long-running, and highly successful, Continental GT. Instead, it has three doors, as well as a hatchback rear. Even more unconventional is the way these portals are arrayed and allotted. A single door provides access for both the driver and a rear seat occupant on one side. The other two open, like a side-by-side refrigerator, to reveal a single passenger seat on the other.
More from Robb Report
A Modern Home in Jackson Hole's Exclusive Snake River Sporting Club Lists for $10 Million
Road Test: The New 1,025 HP Rivian R1S Is a Rock-Crawling Speed Demon
A Zen-Like Hamptons Estate Inspired by Tadao Ando Lists for $19 Million
This broad aperture and single-seated space allow one privileged rider the option to power their chair forward to ride alongside the person behind the wheel, slide it into the back for commodious leg room, or even lean back for a near-flat recline. To avoid the hassle of scrounging in the cargo hold to access their necessaries and furry companions, when in the rearmost position, special storage bins for hand luggage or pet carriers (all of these accessories presumably Bentley branded) emerge from the floor. And to make every departure and arrival a smooth, stumble-free, and social media–worthy occasion, this throne also swivels 45 degrees—like that of a 1960 Chrysler—to ease ingress and egress.
The interior of the EXP 15 reflects a host of contemporary retro-modern décor trends—or perhaps all of them. It sports woolen textiles woven by Fox Brothers, a 250-year-old British mill, but dyed in a variegated ombre effect. It features silk jacquard created by 122-year-old British firm Gainsborough, long a fabric supplier to the Royal Family, but it places these in contrast with 3-D-printed titanium trim pieces, and finely woven metal mesh encapsulated in acrylic. It has beautifully complex, book-matched wood veneers on its dash, but these appear under expanses of LCD-impregnated glass—like a giant iPad—that also function as touch-sensitive gauges and infotainment screens.
A horological ring of multifaceted digital/analog crystalline lights in the center console, known as the 'Mechanical Marvel,' can act as a clock, compass, charge meter, or, conceivably, some arcane nautical navigation implement, like a spherical astrolabe. Interior appointments even include a little LED table lamp—with fluted bronzed-glass shades—like one found next to the cigar ashtray in the supper club of a Streamline Moderne–styled ocean liner.
The exterior is equally, if not more intensely, bonkers. The overall silhouette resembles a hefty, blunt-nosed, high-riding, fastback coupe, not unlike the all-electric Rolls-Royce Spectre, which has been on sale for a couple of years. But, in addition to the distinctive doors and trunk, it has a number of other notable, differentiating features.
Up front, its face is a far more rectilinear sneer. A pair of what seem to be vertical, crying robot goat eyes flank the edges, two intricately perforated square nostrils inhabit the center, and a terse black mouth—patterned with less-than (<) and greater-than (>) signs—appears to jeer mercilessly. This stern countenance is crested, like a tiny Monopoly Man top hat, by a newly falcon-winged Flying-B logo and stylized hood ornament.
An oversized hood dwells beyond this, but because the EXP 15 is meant to be an electric vehicle, it doesn't house a profligate eight- or twelve-cylinder gas engine, as in other Bentleys. Instead, it contains a very lengthy 'frunk,' a dual piano-hinged front storage compartment—presumably for one's platinum rifles and rhodium golf clubs—like the rear of this eight-figure Rolls-Royce Boat Tail commission, or this outrageous Maybach convertible concept.
Powerful rear fender 'haunches'—a Bentley signature—flare out above the back wheels, giving the grand car a menacing poised-to-pounce attitude, even when parked. A pair of active aerodynamic spoilers, mounted above the rear windshield, resemble the oxygen intakes on a post-apocalyptic super-villain's breather mask, which is a function Bentley should consider adding. And the hatch, when open, converts to luxurious picnic seating, with a padded bench and a power-operated Champagne fridge, perfect for tailgating, if this is the proper name for such a practice when attending a polo tourney or fox hunt. The rear taillights, unfortunately, look to be grafted from a Polestar model, perhaps the result of Bentley head designer Robin Page's Swedish sojourn with Volvo before his 2023 return to England.
Overall, the impression the car imparts is decidedly futuristic, and the design idiom certainly aligns with other recent luxurious EV concepts, such as those unveiled by Jaguar, Mercedes, and Genesis, as well as production vehicles such as the Tesla Cybertruck. This style includes contemptuous and mistrustful visages; blockily bunkered and narrowly fenestrated exteriors; and ludicrously lavish and coddling interiors.
This affect somehow suits our contemporary moment, in which many people are fearful of strangers, unwilling to invite others in, and tribally enthusiastic in their willingness to protect those most familiar. We're happy to see that Bentley is still imagining an electrified future. We only wish it greeted the world a bit more exuberantly. After all, we have to imagine the future we want to inhabit.Best of Robb Report
The 2024 Chevy C8 Corvette: Everything We Know About the Powerful Mid-Engine Beast
The World's Best Superyacht Shipyards
The ABCs of Chartering a Yacht
Click here to read the full article.