For its 100th anniversary, Bentley have shown the EXP 100 GT – a concept that imagines what the future of luxury grand touring might look like. As you can imagine, it’s quite an expensive looking thing.
Of course, being a futuristic car, it is imagined with some autonomous driving capability, though it can be driven manually if desired. A.I. (in the form of a Bentley Personal Assistant) will be heavily featured and the car will be based on an all-electric platform. Honestly, they should have given the A.I. a proper butler’s name like Jeeves or something. Calling it the Bentley Personal Assistant reveals the company’s German roots.
This car is being imagined for the year 2035, and in that world, Bentley imagines that drivers and passengers both get to be as immersed in luxury experiences while on trips. As such, the cabin is sculpted to enhance the Grand Touring experiences of the occupants.
Really rare and exotic materials find their way into this cabin, with trim pieces made of 5,000 year old copper infused riverwood being morally-balanced by paint derived from recycled rice husks and leather-like textile that’s a by-product of wine making.
Here’s what Bentley has to say about the car.
PRESS RELEASE
Luxury Beyond Mobility
The Bentley EXP 100 GT redefines the car as a space for extraordinary and emotional human experiences, ones that enrich and inspire. Bentley’s vision imagines the journeys of the future, drawing on 100 years of expertise in luxury design and craftmanship that are currently being celebrated around the world in the company’s Centenary year.
The Bentley EXP 100 GT’s sleek and muscular exterior explores the brand’s future design direction. It incorporates the company’s unmistakable DNA, remaining instantly recognisable as a Bentley. The famous R-Type Continental haunch at the rear, the round headlights that overlap the grille in a nod to the famous Bentley Blower and a long graceful body hint at famous models of yesteryear.
However, this Bentley journeys into the future. Made from lightweight aluminium and carbon fibre, the Bentley EXP 100 GT measures 5.8 metres long and almost 2.4 metres wide, and makes a statement of true luxury. This is further enhanced by decorative features crafted from copper and aluminium, both natural sustainable materials, which evoke founder W.O Bentley’s choice of materials to create the alloy for his famous BR1 Aero engine piston that played a major role in securing the air theatre in World War 1.
The driver and passenger doors are two metres wide and pivot outwards and upwards for effortless access. Fully open, they rise to almost three metres, adding to the sense of occasion on arrival.
The new exterior paint colour Compass is created using a special Colourstream pigment that reflects a beautiful spectrum of autumnal colours and is both sustainable and environmentally friendly. The pigment is synthetically made using rice husk ash, a harmful bi-product of the rice industry, remanufactured for the Bentley EXP 100 GT to reduce the amount that ends up in landfill waste.
The Bentley EXP 100 GT’s expressive exterior lighting is both dynamic and dramatic. A focal point is the smart, illuminated matrix grille and Flying B mascot which come to life as one approaches the car, light playing across the grille, through the mascot and along the bonnet central spine of the car and into the cabin itself. The car literally comes alive.
At the rear, a ‘horseshoe’ section of the boot is a 3D OLED screen on which lighting effects can blend in with the rear lamps.
Inside a luxurious cockpit, Bentley craftspeople have taken handcraftsmanship of materials to an as yet unseen level, setting the new benchmark for luxury interiors.
The finest natural materials such as wood, leather and glass are seamlessly blended with light, creating a unique interior environment that boosts the physical and mental well-being of passengers.
Exquisite materials graduate and flow throughout the handcrafted cabin of the Bentley EXP 100 GT. For example, the embroidery pattern of the sustainable textiles and leather complement the pattern of the grain in the naturally-felled wood veneer. These traditional, tactile materials reconnect passengers with the authentic, natural world around them.
Imperceptible joins between different materials such as wood, leather and wool allow an overall design motif to flow across all these surfaces. The materials are brought together by design, a seamless blend of patterns and forms, textures and colours. Glass flows into metal, into wood and into leather.
Light is core to life and in the Bentley EXP 100 GT it is harvested from the surrounding environment via an innovative glass roof embedded with prisms that collect light and transfer it into the cabin using fibre optics. The use of harvested natural light and synthesised light offers a new approach to enhancing wellness on board.
The Bentley Personal Assistant is a centre piece of the main console and visualised using illuminated crystal from Cumbria, England. Ambient lighting can also be modified to recreate a specific mood or exterior environment, while additional effects are delivered through projection mapping onto trim panels, such as door pads.
Intelligent, Adaptable Biometric Seating can be configured in three different ways, depending on whether the owner is driving or using autonomous mode. Biometric sensors monitor temperature, passenger position and environmental conditions to deliver the ultimate in comfort, whatever the conditions.
Bentley Personal Assistant pre-empts passenger needs and can even maximise comfort based on its knowledge of its owner. For example, reactive seat surfaces respond to passenger position during driving, automatically offering more support when the need is sensed.
In addition, biometrics are embedded throughout the Bentley EXP 100 GT to track eye and head movements, even blood pressure. It represents the future of customised, in-car comfort far beyond any seating experienced in a modern-day car.
