► Bentley’s EXP 15 shows a challenging new design
► But is it a coincidence that it looks like the new Jaguar?
► We chat to Bentley design director Robin Page
As soon as I saw the first pictures of the Bentley EXP 15 concept car, it was inevitable that comparisons were going to be drawn to last year’s Jaguar Type 00.
Similarly bold, different to their firms’ traditional offerings, they show a new side to these storied British car brands as they grapple to give modern luxury customers what they want, even if they might not know it yet.
On Bentley’s own Instagram post, some of the most liked comments, unsurprisingly, concern THE Jaguar concept (pictured below). ‘Did no one learn from Jaguar’s mistake’ says one person. Another says ‘what in the Jaguar’. A pun I wish I’d thought of first.
In an interview with Bentley’s design director Robin Page, who sketched the EXP 15 as one of his first tasks at Crewe after joining in September 2023, it was the question on everyone’s lips and I jumped in first to ask about the similarities to the new Jag.
But not before Bentley’s CEO Frank-Steffen Walliser could get in there with a quip, joking ‘Jaguar who’.
‘The Jaguar is a very different size of car [to the EXP 15],’ says Page, who has the unenviable job of making Bentley’s design more modern while still mixing it with traditional elements.
‘They [Jaguar] follow their design principles as well, which is British heritage. Just generally in the design world you follow design inspirations and trends. More modern surfacing and a cleaner design are definitely trends at the moment.’
Page served as head of Bentley interior design between 2001 and 2013 before going to work at Volvo for a decade, implementing cars such as the XC90 and XC40, truly transitional products, which have helped completely change the Swedish brand’s audience and success.
Similar is now planned at Bentley, which knows the customers wanting luxury cars are now typically younger and want something that looks modern rather than classical.
The EXP 15 is the result of that. Details on it will influence Bentley’s first electric car, a luxury ‘urban SUV’ due in 2027, but instead this concept more explores more around the future of what a Bentley saloon car might look like.
Page says they know and understand the market for their Continental GT and Bentayga SUV – and more importantly their customers – well, but the saloon market is a challenge. These days, only customers in China and the US tend to buy these in any great numbers and what they expect from a four-door car is changing. The Flying Spur now accounts for only around a quarter of its sales, and it’s now been five years since the Mulsanne bowed out as a true Bentley flagship.
Page says: ‘What is interesting is the sedan market as that is something that are changing their expectations of. You’ve got three-box, sort of coupe-styled low, high, etc, so we thought we would test the waters with an elevated sedan, and take some influence from the beautiful Blue Train.
‘The whole SUV market took off because of this elevated presence, this higher seating position, this statement of importance and confidence on the road, but we’ve never explored this on the sedan market, they have always remained low.’
It’s Bentley’s heritage that it hopes to build on in the future of luxury, and an element it knows can separate itself from the Jaguar, which was a ground-up redevelopment for an ailing firm.
When asked how Page’s Bentleys can be differentiated, he said: ‘We’ve seen all the way through the automotive design journeys that there is always a level of trends going on at the time, but for us, we’ve got a great car to reference in terms of our iconic Blue Train.
‘The proportions and the size of this car are completely different to the Jaguar, but of course we’re all going for that modern design that’s attractive to the next generation.’