BENTLEY SETS OUT VISION FOR FUTURE GT
Centenary concept for 2035: unparalleled luxury and interactivity – plus 1340bhp
Bentley is marking its centenary by launching a large and highly intelligent all-electric car called EXP 100 GT. The concept is designed as a physical embodiment of the future of Bentley to show what sustainable opulence could be like in 2035.
The car, which is said to be capable of both “autonomous and enjoyable” driving, has been created in-house in Crewe by a team led by design
director Stefan Sielaff.
It is a huge, coupé-like high-performance car with two massive lifting doors but the dimensions and interior space of a limousine. Inside, the EXP 100 GT is designed to use artificial intelligence to provide a level of luxury unknown in cars at present.
Its secret weapon, a so-called Bentley Personal Assistant controllable from screens front and rear, aims to improve not just occupants’ comfort but their well-being, by minutely recording all manner of their preferences and configuring the car to suit.
The EXP 100 GT takes interactivity well beyond what we know today: its systems will learn and eventually anticipate occupants’ desires when factors such as light conditions, road surface or weather change.
Bentley wants to move EXP 100 GT – and its future models – well beyond simple A to B travel: cars like this will be for “extraordinary and emotional human experiences”.
Luxury in 2035 will extend, Bentley says, to harnessing and redirecting natural light, filtering and redirecting natural airflow and making much more imaginative use of mostly sustainable trim materials to create a link between the car’s occupants and the world outside. It will even be possible, Bentley says, to offer the feeling of open-top motoring under the car’s glass canopy.
The 100 GT is the latest in a decades-long family of Bentley EXP concepts, most of which have had considerable relevance to the look and specification of production models that came after them. It has an all-electric powertrain dubbed Next Generation Traction Drive that uses four motors, each making an estimated 200-335bhp, and an advanced torque vectoring system to distribute a
combined output of anything from 800bhp to 1340bhp to all four wheels.
The combined peak torque is just over 1100lb ft, which, given that electric motors develop maximum torque at the very bottom of their range, easily accounts for the eye-watering estimated 0-62mph of 2.5sec, along with a top speed of 186mph.
Although it has also been designed to accommodate a fuel cell stack, the EXP 100 GT paints a very optimistic picture of battery progress over the next 16 years. The claimed range is 435 miles even though the GT’S overall mass is tipped to fall to 1900kg, around 35% lighter than a car with similar capabilities would weigh today. That should be very beneficial to cornering, braking and agility. By 2035, Bentley says, the car will use batteries with five times today’s energy density, accepting an 80% charge in just 15 minutes.
The car’s lightness is all the more remarkable because of its size. At 5.7 metres in length and 2.4 metres wide, the EXP 100 GT is nearly half a metre longer than the new Flying Spur, and much wider. Bentley is sketchy about the car’s construction, claiming only that its comparatively low kerb weight results from a structure of “lightweight aluminium and carbonfibre”. The cabin has twin doors, each two metres wide, which lift outwards and upwards for effortless arrival and access that, Bentley says, provides a sense of occasion. As do the car’s configurable aerodynamic wheels, complete with ‘intelligent’ tyres.
Interestingly, the EXP 100 GT’S big coupé proportions bear a clear but advanced resemblance to today’s most recently arrived current
Bentleys, the Continental
GT and
Flying Spur.
The new concept also has the fastback and rear haunch of one of Bentley’s most famous cars, the R-type Continental coupé. The round lights overlapping the extremely ornate and prominent grille – which, like the ‘Flying B’ bonnet motif, lights when the driver approaches – are an acknowledgement of the famous ‘Blower’ Bentley of the 1920s, designers say.
The “meticulously sculpted” cabin comes with three different seating configurations depending on whether it’s in autonomous or normal driving mode. The cabin can seat up to four people, though our photographs show a three-seater set-up. Adaptable biometric seats anticipate adjustments that occupants might need to make themselves more comfortable.
Through the artificial intelligence of the Bentley Personal Assistant, occupants can by hand gesture select one of five different comfort modes: Enhance (which harvests the characteristics of the outside environment), Cocoon (which dispenses extreme privacy), Capture (which records previous experiences), Relive (which replays highlights of a tour you might already have made in the car) and Customise.
The car uses natural interior materials such as British-farmed wool carpets, 500-year-old copper-infused riverwood for some of its interior decor and exterior paint made from recycled rice husks. In places, interior embroidery “flows” seamlessly across four disparate materials – glass, wood, fabric and leather. Controls and switches are made from aluminium and copper, natural materials that adhere to Bentley’s ‘if it looks like metal, it is metal’ mantra.
“The EXP 100 GT is the kind of car we want to make in the future,” said Sielaff. “Like the iconic Bentleys of the past, this one connects with its passengers’ emotions and helps them experience and safeguard the really extraordinary journeys they take.”
Cars like this will be for ‘extraordinary and emotional human experiences’