Bentley EXP 12 Speed 6e Concept

There once was a time when Bentley was synonymous with British opulence and luxury. That notion still holds true to this day, but Bentley, like everybody else it seems, has evolved into something more than that. These days, the flying “B” has expanded its reach in the automotive landscape with two recent concept offerings showcasing the future of the company as a creator of sporty and aggressive electric sports cars. We first saw how that looked with the debut of the EXP 10 Speed 6 Concept at the 2015 Geneva Motor Show and a year later, the Crewe-based, British automaker returned to Geneva to bring the coupe’s convertible counterpart, the EXP 12 Speed 6e Concept.

Part electric car, part luxury car, and part sports car, the EXP 12 Speed 6e Concept can probably be best described as the love child of all these segments, created and developed to showcase part of Bentley’s future in the event it decides to go down this road. The company has said that it plans to do just that and is convinced that an all-electric sports car like the EXP 12 Speed 6e Concept can be built without comprising the company’s long-standing tradition of class and luxury. Sounds like the company’s reaching, but remember, we’ve been down this road before.

After all, this is the same company that people scoffed at when it said that it wanted to build an SUV and yet, here we are in 2017, and the Bentayga is making a pretty good case for itself as one of the best luxury SUVs on the market today. That’s not to say that Bentley is going to follow a similar blueprint with the development of the EXP 12 Speed 6e Concept, but the bigger point here is that Bentley has successfully gotten out of its comfort zone, so there’s no reason for it not to dive into more unchartered waters.

Whether it’s the EXP 10 Speed 6 Concept or the EXP 12 Speed 6e Concept, the days of brushing off Bentley’s ability to spread its wings are long gone. At this point, if it says that it’s committed to building an electric car and it has a concept car that it can use to base a future electric car from, taking the company’s word for it would be a far better option than dismissing it again entirely. We don’t know what the EXP 12 Speed 6e Concept is going to amount to, but the fact that it made its debut in Geneva earlier this month speaks to the possibilities of seeing it in production form down the road.

Continue after the jump to read more about the Bentley EXP 12 Speed 6e Concept

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