“It’s like having a mechanical watch and a digital watch,” said Page, adding that Bentley is exploring new dashboard formats that aren’t centred around a traditional touchscreen, and emphasising its focus on analogue controls, which feature throughout the cockpit of the EXP 15.
“What we’re finding, especially at our end of the market, is that people are a bit bored with full-digital screens. What makes us premium is to keep a good level of mechanical detailing that the others can’t do,” said Page.
Will Bentley build it?
The EXP 15 was conceived first and foremost as a design showcase, but Page suggested that a positive reception to its genre-bending silhouette would strengthen the likelihood of a production version.
Asked if the EXP 15 could be readied for showrooms, he said: “It’s doable.”
The concept has been designed around “a viable package and platform, and these are mechanisms that exist. What we want to do is gauge whether this is an interesting concept,” said Page.
He stopped short of saying whether the EXP 15 had been conceived around a specifi c architecture, but a variation of the SSP ‘Sport’ platform that sibling company Porsche is using for its new upcoming SUV flagship, the K1 – a large, three-row SUV that will sit above the Cayenne – would be a logical fit for a production version.
If it does make showrooms, the EXP 15 would not replace any current model, but rather it would pick up where the Mulsanne limousine left off when it was retired in 2020 after a 10-year run – once again giving the Crewe firm a direct rival to the Rolls-Royce Phantom.
Before giving the green light, though, Bentley will closely monitor reaction to the EXP 15 concept in order to gauge the viability of offering a high-riding saloon in this vein.
Page said: “We know really well the GT market. We pretty much invented that market. That’s solid. We know our customers. We know what we want to do. Even in the luxury SUV market, we’re now pretty experienced.