No V8. No exhaust note. A drummer, a bassist, and a viola player recorded specifically to fill the silence left by 107 years of engine sound. The Torcal starts at £173,000, making it Bentley’s cheapest model — and the company is betting first-time buyers, not loyalists, will write that check.
Bentley unveiled the Torcal Tuesday in London, its first fully electric car and the fourth model line in a 107-year history. CEO Frank-Steffen Walliser captured the moment: “For 107 years, Bentleys have been the most incredibly complete cars — effortless performance, outstanding comfort, exquisite British craftsmanship using the finest natural materials and a soundtrack with soul. Our car sets extraordinary benchmarks in every area that matters, and may be the most considered car in our history.” The Torcal is Bentley’s most powerful production vehicle to date, and its cheapest, starting at £173,000 ($230,000) in the UK.
What’s Happening & Why It Matters
Musicians Built the EV “Engine Sound”
Here’s the primary detail worth leading with. Bentley needed a soundtrack for a car with no engine, so the company booked musicians. Drums, a viola, and a bass guitar stand in for a Bentley V8’s soundtrack inside the Torcal — an unusual brief for a luxury car company that has spent a century making exhaust notes a design feature. The development team found the rhythm of a Bentley V8 drove most of the appeal, and set out to recreate that rhythm using recorded instruments rather than synthesised engine sound.
That choice tells you what Bentley thinks a Torcal buyer values. A synthesised engine hum would have chased the sensation of a combustion car. Live-recorded musicians chase something closer to the emotional register Bentley wants a driver to feel, without pretending the car makes a sound it never makes.
888 Horsepower, 2.8 Seconds, and a Fast-Charge Battery
The Torcal launches in two versions. The S trim delivers 888 PS (876 hp) and 1,350 Nm of torque — the highest torque figure in Bentley history — with a 0-60 mph time of 2.8 seconds and a top speed of 162 mph. A 113 kWh battery running at 800V provides an estimated 375 miles (600km) of WLTP range. Charging at 400kW adds 100 miles of range in seven minutes. It takes the battery from 10% to 80% in about 16 minutes — figures that put the Torcal ahead of Volkswagen Group stablemate Porsche’s Cayenne Electric, which tops out around 339 miles depending on configuration.
The Torcal marks Bentley’s first use of active suspension. Each damper adjusts independently and instantly, reacting to road conditions and driver input in real time. The system replaces anti-roll bars, with the dampers providing adjustable anti-roll torque instead. Standard all-wheel steering, turning up to five degrees at the rear, shrinks the turning circle to 11.1 metres — a tight radius for a five-metre-long car.
Bentley’s Cheapest Car, The Fourth Model Line
The Torcal joins the Continental GT, Flying Spur, and Bentayga as Bentley’s fourth model line, falling below the Bentayga rather than at the top of the range. The positioning matters for how Bentley expects the car to perform commercially. Design Director Robin Page‘s team gave the Torcal a long wheelbase, short overhangs, and a new illuminated diamond grille borrowing from the Continental T — plus the first Bentley to carry the brand’s redesigned emblem.
Bentley expects younger consumers to be attracted to the car, including many first-time customers — a deliberate bet that the Torcal’s lower price and electric drivetrain open the brand to buyers who never considered a Bentayga or Flying Spur. That’s a real shift in strategy for a company built on legacy ownership and multi-generational customer loyalty. The Torcal carries a 460-litre trunk plus a 90-litre frunk, and a 10-year, 100,000-mile battery warranty.
A Decade in the Making
Bentley has discussed building an EV for close to ten years. The company floated a smaller electric SUV below the Bentayga back in 2017, and confirmed in 2024 that its first EV would arrive as a sleek urban SUV launching in 2026. The Torcal name comes from El Torcal de Antequera, a limestone rock formation in Spain — a naming choice consistent with Bentley’s pattern of drawing model names from distinctive natural landmarks rather than internal project codes.
Production takes place at Bentley’s historic Pyms Lane factory in Crewe, England, where the brand has built cars for decades. Keeping manufacturing at Crewe for the first EV signals Bentley treats the Torcal as a continuation of its production identity, not a separate electric sub-brand built somewhere new.
TF Summary: What’s Next
The Torcal is expected to reach customers in 2027, following its September 2026 reveal. Bentley has not confirmed a full order book timeline or region-by-region rollout schedule beyond the UK starting price. Parent company Volkswagen expects the Torcal to help improve Bentley’s profitability and establish a presence in the high-end EV market alongside rivals including Porsche’s Cayenne Electric.
MY FORECAST: Expect the Torcal to sell among the first-time buyers Bentley is targeting, given the combination of a lower price point, class-leading charging speed, and a torque figure that outperforms every prior Bentley model — a technical package that gives new customers real substance to justify the badge, not just the badge itself. The musician-recorded soundtrack will draw the most attention in reviews, and expect at least one rival luxury EV maker to try something comparable in the next model cycle, once it is clear how much coverage Bentley’s approach generated compared with the more common synthesised-engine-sound route every other electric performance car has taken.
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