WATCH! INITIAL REVIEW: The New Bentley Torcal Has Some Cool Tech But Has ONE GAME-BREAKING Problem. Can You Guess?
Posted on 9/23/2026 by Agent001
The Bentley Torcal arrives as Crewe’s first all-electric model: a five-metre luxury SUV with up to 876 hp, 996 lb-ft, a 113 kWh pack, about 375 miles of WLTP range, 400 kW charging, active suspension, and a synthetic “V8” soundtrack built from drums, viola and bass. It undercuts the Bentayga, rides the same PPE architecture as the Porsche Cayenne Electric, and is built in England. On paper, it is a serious machine.
The game-breaker is simpler than software or range anxiety. The Torcal will only ever be an EV. There is no petrol twin and no hybrid. For a brand whose customers still buy W12s, V8 hybrids and Bentaygas that can cross continents without a charging plan, that is not a feature. It is a wall. Porsche already ran this experiment. The Macan Electric never replaced the combustion Macan. When the gas model was squeezed out, volume fell; in early 2026 more than half of remaining Macan sales were still ICE cars Porsche was about to kill. Oliver Blume later admitted they were wrong about forcing that nameplate electric-only. The Cayenne Electric is a spectacular EV, but Porsche kept petrol and plug-in Cayennes on sale because the market demanded a choice. An EV-only luxury SUV is a product. An EV-only line is a bet that rich buyers will follow the strategy, not the other way around. Bentley already walked back an all-EV future for the rest of the range. The Torcal is the exception that proves the rule: a beautiful, expensive electric SUV aimed at people who can afford any charging solution—and who can also afford to walk away if they still want a tank and a tailpipe. Cool tech will not save a nameplate that refuses to offer the engines its own customers still prefer. But that is how a flagship becomes a footnote.
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