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With Torcal, the luxury marque enters a new era, one shaped by innovation but guided by the craft, refinement and emotional pull that make it unmistakable
IF ANYONE KNOWS THE ART of the tease, it has to be Bentley. Ahead of the launch of its new Torcal in London on Sep 23, the British marque had been tantalising enthusiasts with the acuity and timing of a burlesque performer.
Those in the media had front-row seats to this performance. First came the name reveal on Jul 6. Then, week after week, fortnight after fortnight, came enticing details about its sound, its hallmark diamond pattern, its technology and engineering, and its materials.
Anticipation is part of the luxury experience, after all. But there is method to the seduction. The Torcal isn’t just another new Bentley. Sure, it’s the fourth series-production model to roll off the assembly line in Crewe. In the marque’s modern Volkswagen era (1998 to present), there have only been three others: the Continental GT, the Flying Spur and the Bentayga.
What makes the Torcal special is that it’s Bentley’s first fully electric production car, and its most powerful yet. So, yes, you can say that the 107-year-old luxury carmaker is now firmly in its electric era.
The premise begs the question: What happens to a Bentley when you replace the engine, its vital beating heart? Because, unlike the customers of mass-market manufacturers, Bentley’s customers aren’t just buying a means of transport (heaven forbid), or even a performance vehicle.
They’re buying something much less tangible. They’re buying a sensation, an experience fuelled by desire – one that’s been carefully built up over the years through the marque’s obsessive attention to craftsmanship, materials, refinement, personalisation and, yes, a pretty penny.
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So, if you take away one or more of those raw ingredients, the recipe – and flavour profile – could be altered beyond recognition. Bentley, of course, insists that this isn’t the idea.
As Dave Hayter, the marque’s Asia-Pacific regional director, puts it: “Our transformation is guided by a clear principle: We will evolve wherever it strengthens the brand and enhances the customer experience.”
What changes, he says, are things such as power trains, materials, digital and technological innovation, as well as new ways of engaging customers.
What does not change is the essence of Bentley: comfort, craftsmanship, performance, refinement and, perhaps the most important of all, emotional appeal. Can Bentley pull it off?
The art of changing without changing
It’s not the first time that Bentley has had to grapple with a paradigm shift. When the Bentayga launched in 2015, critics were quick to dismiss it as a sport utility vehicle wearing the “Winged B”.
But it has since become the marque’s most popular model, regularly making up between 42 and 45 per cent of total yearly sales for the company. Its massive commercial success signalled one thing: Bentley can enter a completely new segment and still retain its core identity.
The Bentayga, says Hayter, took Bentley to a whole new place without losing any of the elements – craftsmanship, performance and refinement – that its customers expected.
Now, the Torcal aims to achieve the same heights of success. Except this time, it’s taking a much bigger technological leap.
Interestingly, the name Torcal derives in part from the Latin “torquere”, which gave rise to the word “torque”. Instant torque happens to be a defining characteristic of electric power trains.
But if electrification is the future, and electric-vehicle technology becomes standardised, how can a luxury carmaker go above and beyond the mainstream?
“As technology becomes more widely available, Bentley’s advantage will come from qualities that are much harder to replicate,” says Hayter, referring to design judgment, material expertise, the sound of the engine and the emotional experience of the car, among others.
“In luxury, differentiation is not created by technology alone,” he adds. “It is created by how technology is curated, and how it serves the customer.”
Craftsmanship, which is so fundamental to Bentley, is no longer just about traditional materials or hand-finishing techniques.
It now also includes the introduction of new materials, the restrained integration of digital technology, and the creation of an interior environment that feels intentional and intuitive.
And as much as artificial intelligence and tech continue to dominate our lives, Hayter maintains that “the human eye, the human hand and human judgment remain essential to the Bentley experience”.
Performance, not peacocking
In the Bentley universe, performance has always been less about making drivers and passengers feel as if they’ve been strapped to a supercharged bullet, and more about delivering considerable speed with a measure of composure. Typical British restraint, one might say.
“Performance has always been defined by the feeling it creates, not just the figures it delivers,” Hayter says.
Still, the Torcal is the most powerful production model Bentley has ever made, as well as the fastest-accelerating from a standstill.
The car’s electric power train, with its instant response and wave of torque, lends itself naturally to the marque’s longstanding idea of effortless progression. That’s the ability to generate impressive performance, without turning it into a Hollywood production.
In typical Bentley fashion, the marque describes the Torcal’s accelerating prowess as happening “within the boundaries of comfort”. Hayter adds that instead of allowing electric technology to lead the narrative, “the car is designed to make its performance feel natural, assured and emotionally engaging”.
In Bentley’s electric era, those measures of performance will be interesting because it’s not an issue of whether an EV can be lightning quick. Evidently, it can.
The issue is whether that speed comes with the sense of composure, effortlessness and refinement that customers associate with the carmaker.
Getting personal
Monobloc mobile phones still dominate the market. Third-party producers have devised an endless number of ways for users to customise their devices. Personalisation, therefore, is that other great hedge against tech uniformity.
And personalisation has become increasingly important in the luxury and ultra-luxury market segments. But for carmakers, Hayter points out, it’s not just about offering a long list of options.
Customers increasingly want something bespoke, instead of something that just happens to be expensive.
There are numbers to back that statement: Around 75 per cent of Bentleys leaving the production floor now feature some form of Mulliner content, says Hayter. Mulliner is the marque’s personal commissioning and bespoke coachbuilding division.
But there’s a paradox: If customisation is available to everybody, then does customisation itself cease to be a differentiating factor?
“Our approach,” explains Hayter, “is therefore curated, not unlimited. Through Mulliner, our design teams and our retailers, we guide customers towards choices that express their individuality, while preserving the craftsmanship, proportion, quality and emotional character that make the car unmistakably Bentley.”
The luxury universe, with the car still at the centre
Beyond the car itself, luxury carmakers are increasingly driven to talk about experiences, well-being and lifestyle.
Bentley has not been immune to this shift. There are curated drives, hospitality partnerships, design-led encounters and a host of other experiences designed to keep the marque at the top of customers’ minds.
But here, as always, more doesn’t mean better. Enter typical British restraint. Or, as Hayter asserts: “The car will always be at the centre of the relationship.”
Experiences add value when they feel like a natural extension of Bentley’s identity – finely crafted, detailed, authentic, refined. Rather than providing an opportunity to slap the Winged B logo somewhere, they should, he argues, create relevance, memory and emotional connection around ownership. That challenge, he admits, becomes complicated when speaking of a region as diverse as Apac. There isn’t a single Asian luxury customer, just as there isn’t a single Asian luxury market.
Even within South-east Asia alone, there are different cultural mores, infrastructure, regulations, levels of EV adoption and expectations around ownership.
The brand promise remains consistent wherever it operates, Hayter maintains. What changes is how that promise manifests.
That’s especially useful in navigating this electric transition. Some markets are more receptive towards EVs, while others require more convincing. Even within the same market, two Bentley customers could have entirely different attitudes towards change.
“Luxury customers value choice, reassurance and the freedom to move when the product, infrastructure and ownership experience feel right for them,” says Hayter.
So, the Torcal arrives not as a symbol of progress and cue to abandon models running on internal combustion or hybrid engines.
Like a new bottling of a premium cognac, it joins the Bentley family as another expression of the marque – a fully electric one, for customers who are ready for it.
A new dawn
For Bentley, continuity is the name of the game, not reinvention.
The Torcal replaces the power train, but not the underlying philosophy. Technology evolves, but craftsmanship endures. Performance changes the expression, but not the emotional response. And personalisation expands, but the Bentley identity persists.
By 2035, Hayter says he wants Bentley to be recognised for showing “how a luxury marque can move with the times, without losing the qualities that made it distinctive”.
Perhaps that long, teasing reveal had a higher purpose after all. Bentley spent weeks dropping hints before showing us the whole thing. It’s as if the underlying message is that the future of Bentley isn’t just about an engine, a grille or a new sonic identity for its EV era.
It’s what happens when all of those things are placed under the purview of people who still care very deeply about how a Bentley should feel.
