Bentley for long has been known for its indulgent craftsmanship and powerful engines mixed with a hint of dynamic personality via its sporting demeanour.
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Bentley owners drive themselves more often. Their cars straddle between being a GT and a bona-fide luxury express. However, the definition of luxury is changing at an alarming rate and car-makers are catching up.
New Bentley Batur: Sustainable luxury
Sustainable luxury is the new buzzword. Bentley has also jumped on that bandwagon with its new concept called Batur. However, within the veneer of sustainable luxury, the Batur is also the last frontier when it comes to its much-loved W12 powertrain. Hence, the newest Bentley is an interesting concoction of power and sustainability.
This is a limited-edition model. But the significance goes beyond its chiselled lines as it shows what the new wave of electrified Bentleys will look like in the future.
A peak at an electrified future
This coach-built car has infinite colour options for its lucky owners. And the interplay of new materials like carbon-fibre to more black accents give the car a sportier vibe. There isn’t an abundance of chrome here and the design is less upright but more radical.
The large grille with its delicate detailing to the slim tail-lamps are all different to the current Bentley range. That brings in a new design direction that we like. The car seen here wears 22-inch dark polished wheels and fits rather well within its muscular wheel-arches.
The Batur is not your average Bentley since it is a bespoke showcase of what you can expect from this British automaker in the future along with also showing what we cherished all this long.
Limited edition, at $2 million each
Step inside any Bentley and you get a whiff of leather and glossy wood within traditional materials. The Batur is not about that since for the first time, Bentley has experimented with sustainable materials including low-carbon leather sourced from Scotland along with sustainable tannage leather. There is also an alternative in form of Dinamica which uses suede and shuns leather altogether.
Veneer options include Natural Fibre composite with an interesting weave design while even the carpets are made from recycled yarn.
Amongst all of this, the 6.0-litre W12 powertrain is almost a laughable contradiction but this magnificent engine deserved a canvas like the Batur for one last blast. It gets upgraded turbochargers, new intercoolers, and extensive recalibration to deliver more than 740 PS and 1,000 Nm of torque.
Bentley experiments with sustainable materials
Active air-springs, a 48V electric active anti-roll control system plus CSiC (Carbon-Silicon-Carbide) braking system enables the Batur to be amongst the lightest of Bentleys while being the most athletic.
The Batur is not your average Bentley since it is a bespoke showcase of what you can expect from this British automaker in the future along with also showing what we cherished all this long. Only 18 examples of the Batur will be constructed at $2 million each but that figure is meaningless within the significance of being the last limited-edition W12 Bentley.
Images: Bentley
Somnath Chatterjee grew up around cars and most of his childhood was spent obsessing over supercars. Years later he decided to start writing about them and hasn’t looked back since. While he has had his fair share of cars, the world of automobiles never ceases to amaze him. Travelling all over the world to drive them along with sharing that experience is what ultimately keeps him going. He hopes to drive a Ferrari 288 GTO someday because, well, do you really need a reason?
