Bentley Finally Goes Electric With The New Torcal, Its Most Powerful Production Car Ever

Bentley has finally entered the electric era with a big statement. The British luxury automaker has just revealed the new Torcal, its first fully electric production car, and somehow, its first EV is also the most powerful production Bentley ever built. That wasn't necessarily what we expected from Bentley's first attempt at an electric car.

After more than a century of building its reputation around big engines with enormous torque and effortless performance, it was only a matter of time before we saw Bentley go electric. This is only the beginning of Bentley's electric story.

Bentley's First EV Is Finally Here

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Bentley has been talking about an electric future for years, but the wait is finally over. The Torcal becomes the brand's fourth model, joining the Continental GT, Flying Spur and Bentayga. It also allows Bentley to move its design language in a new direction.

The Torcal looks nothing like the previous Bentley designs we’ve come to know. Instead, Bentley has given its new EV a cleaner and more modern, minimalist-style shape, while keeping some of the visual cues that make its cars immediately recognizable as a Bentley.

The front end is dominated by Bentley's new Floating Diamond Grille, which features 76 individually hand-applied illuminated diamonds. That is quite a flashy feature for a company that has never been particularly interested in subtle luxury. Even the name has a story behind it.

Torcal comes from El Torcal de Antequera, a dramatic limestone landscape in Andalusia, Spain. Bentley also points to its connection with the word "torque," which feels appropriate when you're talking about an electric Bentley producing almost 1,000 lb-ft of torque.

Then Bentley Made It Seriously Fast

Bentley already made two variants of the Torcal. The standard Torcal is already pretty powerful and fast. Its dual-motor powertrain produces 809 hp and 852 lb-ft of torque, allowing it to reach 60 mph in just 3.4 seconds. Bentley also claims up to 375 miles of range, while a 350-kW charger can add more than 150 miles of range in around 10 minutes. But if 809 horsepower isn't enough, Bentley has a more powerful version.

The Torcal S pushes output to 876 hp and 996 lb-ft of torque. With launch control, it can hit 60 mph in 2.8 seconds, making this the quickest and most powerful production Bentley ever built. Think about that for a second.

Bentley's first EV isn't just replacing one of its big engines with electric motors. It has immediately taken the performance crown from the company's combustion-powered cars. The Torcal S can also reach 162 mph, which isn't particularly important for an electric luxury SUV, but it does tell you exactly what Bentley was trying to achieve with this car.

Bentley Is Bringing Its Luxury Philosophy Into The EV Era

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But horsepower and crazy acceleration aren't enough to make this a Bentley. The company has spent decades making its interiors some of the most luxurious places you can sit, and the Torcal continues that tradition while adding plenty of modern technology.

The cabin combines handcrafted materials, veneers, leather and other exquisite materials with a large 12.25-inch curved center OLED display, the first of its kind fitted to a Bentley. Bentley has also developed new Bullseye Vector Sphere air vents, giving a modern interpretation to one of the brand's longest-running interior design features. But one of the more interesting parts of the Torcal is something you can't see.

Electric cars are naturally quiet, which is normally considered a benefit. Bentley, however, doesn't seem particularly interested in letting its performance cars become completely silent. The company has created Bentley Dynamic Symphony, an artificial soundtrack built using recordings of real musical instruments. This is Bentley's attempt to replace some of the emotional connection traditionally provided by an engine and exhaust with something designed specifically for the electric era. It is a small detail, but an important one. Bentley isn't simply trying to make an electric car. It is trying to show you what a Bentley should feel like when there is no engine under the hood.

A New Chapter For Bentley

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Bentley may be a little late to the EV game, but that doesnt seem to be a problem. The Torcal is important because this is our first look into what an electric Bentley would be. The company now has a fourth model, a new design language and a flagship EV capable of producing more power than anything it has previously put into production.

And despite all of that technology, Bentley hasn't abandoned the things that made its cars desirable in the first place. The Bentley Torcal is still about luxury, performance and craftsmanship. The difference is that this time, there is a large battery pack underneath it all.

Pricing starts at around £173,300 in the UK, while U.S. prices are expected to start under $230,000. That makes the Torcal an expensive first step into the EV market, but then again, nobody expected any Bentley to be cheap. For a company that has spent over a century perfecting the art of gas-powered luxury cars, the Torcal is a radical departure from it’s roots but still has a lot of the Bentley DNA. It is fast, luxurious, extravagant, and expensive. It is has everything you expect from a Bentley, but it just doesn't need a W12 anymore.