British luxury automaker Bentley has launched its first fully electric vehicle (EV), the £173,000 Torcal SUV.
The Bentley Torcal marks the brand’s first foray into the EV market in its 107-year history.
Though renowned for its iconic W12 and V8 combustion engines, the Crewe-based manufacturer maintains that its shift to an all-electric lineup hasn't sacrificed performance. In fact, it claims that it’s the most powerful Bentley ever built.
With 876 horsepower and 1,350Nm of torque, the Torcal will accelerate from 0–60 miles per hour in just 2.8 seconds.
As Bentley is owned by the VW Group, the Torcal has been built on the same EV platform as the Porsche Cayenne Electric. The high-voltage battery consists of 192 lithium-ion pouch cells in series, running at 800V nominal, with a total net capacity of 113kWh. This enables it to achieve 604km (375 miles) of range.
The vehicle is a beast – weighing 2.7 tonnes, with the battery pack alone making up nearly 624kg of that. But despite being so...