Bentley's first all-electric production vehicle is making significant progress. In July last year, we spied a pre-production development mule wearing a Porsche body, and earlier this year, our spy photographers caught a more resolved prototype undergoing cold-weather testing in Northern Europe. Now, the electric SUV has taken to the Nürburgring to ensure its handling dynamics are sporty enough for the British brand, and without a large LED lightbar on the nose, we can get a closer look at the styling, though this is still far from the finished article. The bit that stands out the most is the oval recess between the headlights, which seems to be an enormous placeholder for the Bentley wings. This could be the most overt piece of self-branding we've seen on a legacy automaker's EV yet, or just something meant to throw us off. Either way, the SUV is making steady progress.
Bentley's Electric City Slicker May Already Have a Name
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Bentley has given its first EV a placeholder name: Urban Luxury SUV. But it's widely believed that the production vehicle will be called Barnato, thanks to whispers from inside the company and trademarks filed a little over a year ago. Alongside the gas-powered Bentayga, alliteration will allow buyers to quickly associate the EV as an SUV from the Bentley stable, while also paying tribute to one of the most important figures in the brand's history, Woolf Barnato. He was one of the famous Bentley Boys who won Le Mans three times in a row in one of Crewe's creations and, as chairman of the company, helped keep the company alive in the mid-1920s. Unlike its namesake, the Barnato SUV won't use combustion to seek glory, instead relying on the 800-volt Premium Platform Electric architecture that sits beneath the Porsche Cayenne EV, which produces up to 1,139 horsepower.
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The Barnato will be roughly five inches shorter than the Bentayga, but that will make all the difference to city-dwelling buyers, who will be able to legally park the vehicle on European city streets. Here in America, the key will be its looks; buyers spending six figures on an SUV want it to make a luxury statement. Fortunately, it appears the Barnato won't look like much else on the road.
Bentley Barnato Styling Will Break with Tradition
SH Proshots/Autoblog
While Bentley's existing products have round headlights, this one has semi-circular clusters with four LED lights creating a plus shape. Atop the headlights, it appears that a solid LED eyebrow will run into the fenders, and lower down in the fascia, the intakes will have diamond-shaped mesh. This prototype also shows a dual-pane panoramic sunroof, and the wheel arches will be pronounced for a more athletic look. At the rear of the front fenders, we see what appears to be the Flying B logo, helping this EV fit in with the rest of the Bentley family. At the back, it's a little trickier to tell what Bentley has planned, as significant cladding hides the true forms of the taillights, tailgate, and rear fender sculpture. Nevertheless, a prominent diffuser panel is evident. We expect the end result to become clearer in the coming months, as a reveal is likely to happen before the end of the year.
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