Bentley Reveals EXP-OH GOD NO MY EYES MY EYES

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Coming soon to a Big 5 European league/Saudi Pro League/American franchise team's training ground near you.
 
The Russian and Saudi oligarchs will love it so they can throw screw-you money at personalisation
 
TheCracker
Why can't manufacturers do electric and elegant? Do these things have to be mutually exclusive?
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The Spectre seems like it's the least bad but it's also not good. Thing is, I don't think electrification has anything to do with it. I think they think this is the styling that the market wants (maybe it is, I don't know--I think it's fugly but I think a lot of the current crop is also ugly) and they're not likely to pivot unless they get pushback in the form of declining sales. But I also don't think they're likely to get a lot of that pushback as I expect 97% of those who would buy a Bentley in this segment that isn't fugly will still buy this.
 
Also, maybe it's just this cold I'm getting over, but I feel like this concept is so ugly, it's almost like a Lovecraftian monster that makes you vomit if you try comprehending its true form.
 
And the Kia K4 got suddenly vindicated from the big brother the K6.

Wait, what? A Bentley??

But Kia, that's a Kia!!

That's a KIAAAAAAAA!!!!!
 
It’s really like the tablet pen started with an i7 grille, turned into an R35 greenhouse, then Kia K4 and then rage quit.

What million and billionaires “drive” Bentleys? Which ones care own the brand, a few years from today?
As mentioned in other posts, as long as it has some form of syncing with music, a place for cold beverages and some mustard, what’s going to distinguish it for someone to plunk big money for one? Just buy a G80.
 
TexRex
The Spectre seems like it's the least bad but it's also not good. Thing is, I don't think electrification has anything to do with it. I think they think this is the styling that the market wants (maybe it is, I don't know--I think it's fugly but I think a lot of the current crop is also ugly) and they're not likely to pivot unless they get pushback in the form of declining sales. But I also don't think they're likely to get a lot of that pushback as I expect 97% of those who would buy a Bentley in this segment that isn't fugly will still buy this.
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I had totally forgotten about the Spectre to be honest, and maybe that highlights my point. You'd never guess by looking at one, especially at rest, that it was electric. It just fits in with the rest of the RR range.

The design freedom that electrification has brought, along with some of the packaging restraints, has freaked car designers out. They don't appear to know what to do with it and are all copying each other. Hence why we have a Bentley that looks like a KIA with B&Q LED strip lighting.

The one thing Bentley did right when they split from Rolls Royce was move away from the upright grill that was forced on them by being little more than rebadged RR's. They've kept that slightly more laid back and curved grill ever since and have made it work whilst still appearing very 'Bentley'. But with this they've gone back to the grill being very upright (with some marketing guff about a horse's chest) and it just looks wrong on something that shoud be screaming speed, luxury and elegance.

From the front 3/4 it reminds me of the 2001 GT-R concept.
 
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TheCracker
I had totally forgotten about the Spectre to be honest, and maybe that highlights my point. You'd never guess by looking at one, especially at rest, that it was electric. It just fits in with the rest of the RR range.

The design freedom that electrification has brought, along with some of the packaging restraints, has freaked car designers out. They don't appear to know what to do with it and are all copying each other. Hence why we have a Bentley that looks like a KIA with B&Q LED strip lighting.

The one thing Bentley did right when they split from Rolls Royce was move away from the upright grill that was forced on them by being little more than rebadged RR's. They've kept that slightly more laid back and curved grill ever since and have made it work whilst still appearing very 'Bentley'. But with this they've gone back to the grill being very upright (with some marketing guff about a horse's chest) and it just looks wrong on something that shoud be screaming speed, luxury and elegance.

From the front 3/4 it reminds me of the 2001 GT-R concept.
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Also the madness of pursuing aero efficiency to get towards the mythical 5 miles/kWh has resulted in EVs like the EQS looking like bars of soap
 
Their last concept car 100 EXP100 was actually a nice looking concept, this one not so much.

Both the Bacalar and Batur are great looking cars that have actually made production so they can still make looking cars, hopefully the all electric bentley doesn't look much like this concept car though!
 
AudiMan2011
Also the madness of pursuing aero efficiency to get towards the mythical 5 miles/kWh has resulted in EVs like the EQS looking like bars of soap
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I was actually thinking about this. It seems to be the de-facto form factor for ground-up BEVs is a footprint that is wider than a traditional ICE vehicle. Why? I don't really get it. I appreciate that the skateboard chassis style utilizes the space between the wheels for batteries and the wide footprint allows more space for them, but wouldn't a long footprint also do that? Maybe there is something about the configuration of the batteries needing to be in a more square layout or just generally keeping length in check, but for a given total footprint area and cD, a longer car is going to have less aerodynamic drag than a wider one. One issue I have with BEVs is they tend to look oddly squat because of their width. In the early days it kind of had an exotic feel to it, but after a decade+ of this form factor, I tend to see it as just ungainly now. When I was at the Petersen automotive museum late last month I saw this car (a Talbot T150) in person and was utterly blown away by it's slender, elegant proportions.

talbot.jpg


Makes me appreciate the more contemporary designs that sort of strive to be a little more delicate. The E89 BMW Z4 had slender proportions and I think is a pretty underrated design - sadly the new Z4 is considerably wider & more generic looking. While it's a huge car, the Phantom actually manages to look fairly elegant because it's so tall and long. I don't really know where I'm going with this, but it would be great if a marque like Bentley gave us some elegance.
 
If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then Nissan must be feeling pretty loved right now. This is the second "prestige" brand this year that's been cribbing lines off the R35 GT-R.
 
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Unfortunately this thing is not ugly, and Bentley will take that as a greenlight that people actually like it. Problem: It looks like a Rolls Royce, or the Chinese knockoff version of a Rolls Royce. It sure as hell doesn't look anything like a Bentley.
 

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