The Bentley Torcal has covered more than 1 million kilometres / 621,000 miles in testing. It has been put through some rather brutal conditions. The programme has taken the electric SUV from freezing temperatures of -36-deg F in Sweden to desert heat exceeding 104-deg F. It has also been tested at altitudes above 14,000 feet at Pikes Peak.
A lot of work has gone into the development beyond simply driving prototypes around. Three teams have been working on the electrical architecture, software integration and testing, while software updates have been rolled out every six weeks and checked in both laboratories and real-world conditions.
The battery of the Bentley Torcal has received particularly serious attention. Weighing around 1,378 pounds, it has an energy density of over 180 Wh/kg. Bentley says its protective structure targets two hours of fire resistance in the event of a thermal incident.
Engineers even fired a 30 mm steel projectile at the battery casing at speeds exceeding 99 mph to test its underbody protection. Clearly, Bentley isn’t taking any chances with its first EV.