Bentley Stakes Crewe on a £173,000 Electric SUV

Bentley revealed the Torcal, its first full electric car, in London on 23 September 2026, priced from £173,000 ($230,000). It is a five-metre SUV, a new fourth line beside the Continental GT, Flying Spur and Bentayga, and it starts at the low end of Bentley money.

Crewe is betting that a cheaper electric SUV, not a silent GT, can pull in new buyers after the firm walked back a promise to be all-electric by 2030. The S is the most powerful production Bentley yet. The soundtrack is a drum kit pretending to be a 6¾-litre V8.

The Cheapest New Bentley Is Also the Most Powerful

UK pricing puts the Torcal at the bottom of the current range. Ferrari’s electric Luce starts at €550,000 ($628,000). Chairman and CEO Dr. Frank-Steffen Walliser said the brief was “a Bentley first,” and that buyers are “not asking for a completely different car just because it’s electric.”

Two versions launch together. The core car makes 821 PS and 1,194 Nm, reaches 60 mph in 3.3 seconds (0-100 km/h in 3.4 seconds) and is limited to 155 mph. The S, with launch control, makes up to 888 PS and 1,350 Nm, the highest torque Bentley has ever put in a production car, and hits 60 mph in 2.8 seconds (0-100 km/h in 2.9 seconds) with a 162 mph top speed.

Even the core SUV’s 3.3-second run undercuts the Bentayga Speed’s 3.4-second 0-60. Twin permanent-magnet motors drive all four wheels. The rear unit has a locking differential; the front uses an open one. Both are dry-sump designs filled with oil for life.

TORCAL AND TORCAL S AT LAUNCH

The S figures need launch control. Bentley’s research team capped the sprint there on purpose, because most customers find anything quicker uncomfortable, the company said.

Crewe Puts £350 Million Behind an Electric SUV

Every modern Bentley is designed, engineered and built in Crewe, Cheshire, and the Torcal follows that rule. The new line sits in an original 1938 factory building that used to hold the machining shop, then the R&D workshop. The floor was stripped and relaid so autonomous guided vehicles can move unfinished cars through the hall.

The work is part of a self-funded £350 million factory programme that also adds a new paint shop and refreshes the wider site. More than 4,000 people work there, one of the largest payrolls in the town. The grounds cover 521,111 m2, of which 166,930 m2 is indoors.

WHAT CREWE IS PUTTING INTO THE TORCAL

• The money: A self-funded £350 million programme, including a new paint shop and a dedicated electric assembly hall.
• The building: A 1938 block, once a machine shop, now a level-floor line for guided vehicles.
• The payroll: More than 4,000 people on a site that has been Bentley’s home for 80 years.
• The cloth: Wool for the cabin comes from Fox Brothers in Somerset, one of a British supplier net Bentley is using to sell the car as a UK product.

A new design studio, opened in 2025 in another renewed 1938 building, signed the car under design director Robin Page. The Torcal is also the first Bentley to wear the firm’s redesigned emblem. If the SUV stalls, Crewe has spent a nine-figure sum on a fourth line that does not replace the petrol and hybrid cars still rolling out of the same gates.

The Same 113 kWh Pack as a Porsche Cayenne

The high-voltage battery uses 192 lithium-ion pouch cells in series at 800 volts nominal, with a total net capacity of 113 kWh, covered by a 10-year, 100,000-mile warranty. Bentley quotes a WLTP range of up to 375 miles (600 km) and a 10-80% charge in 16 minutes at 400 kW, or about 100 miles in seven minutes. No EPA figure has been published.

Those pack and charge numbers line up with the Cayenne Electric’s 113 kWh battery, which Porsche also peaks at 400 kW and takes from 10 to 80% in less than 16 minutes. The Volkswagen Group sibling sits on the Premium Platform Electric. Porsche’s non-turbo Cayenne Electric is rated at up to 642 km WLTP; the Turbo is rated at 623 km and 1,156 PS, with 0-100 km/h in 2.5 seconds.

TORCAL S BESIDE THE CAYENNE TURBO ELECTRIC

Bentley left a lot of the group’s available power on the table. The Torcal is five metres long, the shortest four-door in the current line-up, with a 460-litre boot and a 90-litre front store. Rear-wheel steering of up to five degrees cuts the turning circle to 11.1 metres. Fully active suspension, a first for Bentley, raises and lowers each damper on its own and does away with anti-roll bars.

Why Bentley Capped the Sprint at 2.8 Seconds

Walliser used the London night to argue the car is still a Bentley, only then an EV. The performance brief matches that pitch: fast enough to lead the company’s own charts, short of the Cayenne Turbo’s 2.5-second 0-100 km/h, and sold as calm rather than violent.

The Torcal is a Bentley first and foremost, created by hand by people who care, using the best available materials and technology to blend heritage with cutting-edge innovation. I believe this is one of the best Bentleys ever.

Dr. Frank-Steffen Walliser, Chairman and CEO, London debut

Four-wheel steering, the active dampers and iron brakes (420 mm front, 370 mm rear, with a larger carbon-silicon-carbide option) are there to make an SUV with 1,350 Nm feel like a Flying Spur on a long road and a Continental GT Speed on a tight one, which is Bentley’s own comparison. Twenty-five radars, sensors and cameras feed parking tricks, including remote parking by app and doors that close when a passenger buckles up or the driver presses the brake.

The illuminated diamond grille sits behind polycarbonate, a jewellery face on a car that no longer needs cooling air in the old way. Bentley has said a car with no grill would be like taking the nose off someone’s face. Page’s team also points to the Continental T in the lighting. The shape still reads as a tall crossover to anyone who wanted a lower GT, which is the trade Crewe made when it picked an SUV for the first battery car.

Drums, Viola and a Borrowed V8 Beat

The louder argument will not be about kilowatts. It will be about the noise Bentley paid musicians to invent. The development team decided a recorded V8 was too cheap a trick, then hired players with drums, viola and bass guitar to perform a “Bentley Dynamic Symphony” based on the beat of the old 6¾-litre V8, complete with small mistakes so it does not sound like a loop.

The mix rises with torque demand and road speed. Sport mode turns it up. It can also be switched off. That last switch is the honest bit: Crewe knows some owners will hate it. The rest of the cabin audio is equally staged, and it is the part of the car that tells you the brand still does not trust silence.

HOW THE TORCAL MAKES NOISE WITHOUT AN ENGINE

• Drive sound: Live drums, viola and bass guitar, mixed as a low-frequency beat that tracks the driver’s torque demand.
• The source: The rhythm of Bentley’s 6¾-litre V8, not a direct recording of one.
• Indicators: A hammer striking leather, taped in the Crewe upholstery shops.
• Screen taps: The note of a crystal glass, also used for the digital assistant.
• The mute: The whole symphony can be turned off; Sport is the only mode that leans on it.

Two stereo fits are offered: a 620W, 16-speaker set, or a Naim 1,780W, 28-speaker pack with seat shakers, headrest speakers and Dolby Atmos 7.1. Four Experience Modes (Bentley, Comfort, Sport and Refresh) change light, climate, airflow and what the screens show, not just throttle maps. Comfort can hide almost every display. Refresh brightens the cabin and pulls in more outside air.

Half the Queue Has Never Owned a Bentley

Walliser split early interest down the middle: about half from current owners adding an EV or replacing a car in a fleet, and about 50% new to the brand. That mix is the point of putting the first battery Bentley under the GT on price. A launch campaign in China is due in 2027.

McLaren has said it has no EV plans. Lamborghini, another Volkswagen Group house, has pushed its first battery car toward the end of the decade. Rolls-Royce is already selling an EV. Bentley delayed its own first electric model to 2026 and dropped the 2030 all-electric target after customers stayed with hybrids. The Torcal does not convert the Continental or the Bentayga. It sits beside petrol and plug-in cars as a fourth choice.

Orders opened on 23 September 2026. Production at Crewe is due to start in early 2027, with first deliveries in the second quarter of 2027. U.S. cars are due as 2028 models. Until those chassis hit the road, the 375-mile WLTP claim and the 16-minute charge remain lab numbers, and the drum kit remains a press-room idea.

First Cars Leave Crewe in 2027

The 23 September 2026 debut was the easy night. The hard part is the next 18 months at the 1938 hall, where a luxury brand that once built W12 engines by hand now has to build battery packs into SUVs without looking like a rebadged Porsche. The W12 itself left the line in 2024 after 20 years. Plug-in V8 Continentals and Flying Spurs remain on sale. Full electrification is now an ambition for 2035.

HOW BENTLEY GOT TO AN ELECTRIC SUV

1. 2020: Beyond100 sets a first EV for 2025 and an all-electric range by 2030.
2. 2024: The W12 ends at Crewe; the all-electric date moves to 2035 under Beyond100+, with a battery SUV promised for 2026.
3. 6 July 2026: Bentley names the car Torcal after El Torcal de Antequera, a limestone formation in Andalusia, and notes that “Torcal” shares a Latin root with torque.
4. 17 September 2026: Crewe shows the 1938 production hall and the £350 million site spend.
5. 23 September 2026: London debut of the Torcal and Torcal S; customers can specify cars the same day.
6. Early 2027: Series production starts at Crewe, with first deliveries in the second quarter of 2027.

Walliser called the Torcal one of the best Bentleys ever. The factory will find out whether a £173,000 SUV with a Porsche-related pack and a viola in the speakers can recruit the half of the queue that has never bought one, without driving off the half that still wants a V8.