Just as the decorative arts were inspired by trains and ocean liners at the turn of the last century, current design aesthetics are also influenced by current transportation trends.

In the past ten years or so, electrification has been the most important theme, as modern battery-powered cars have been in the minds of stylists for some time, so the influence of design inspired by voltage, watts and ecology is not enough. Surprising. The consciousness that seems to go hand in hand with them now shines in our cars.

The bigger the car, the bigger the canvas designer; therefore, not surprisingly, the Bentley Flying Spur — a 5.3-meter-long, 2.5-ton luxury sedan, now offers plug-in power — not only in its drivetrain On its side wings, seats and wheels.

"They are a very technical color," said Hans Holzgartner of Bentley, referring to the matte appearance, 21-inch, Pale Brodgar wheels of the Flying Spur Hybrid. This finish not only appears on Spur's alloys, but also in most areas of the car, where mirror chrome may usually be present. In other words, bright works are not so bright. This is a deliberate decision: subtlety is the new glitz.

As Bentley’s senior global product manager, Holzgartner knows a little bit about the new Flying Spur Hybrid and the information about Bentley’s past, present and future. "V8 and W12 Flying Spur have very little visual changes," he commented. "But sustainability is considered for all different things." This sustainability is most evident in Flying Spur Hybrid, where the wool interior part is mixed with matte acacia wood, which requires less paint than a typical Bentley veneer 90%. 

For Bentley, this sense of inconspicuousness—or as close as possible to inconspicuousness in a six-figure luxury car assembled by the world's top automaker—is obviously important. If money can speak, this speeding hybrid — said to be like wealth — will whisper. 

It also speaks in a low voice when moving, and the battery pack has a range of about 25 miles. Bentley believes that this distance is sufficient for most customers in most cases. Holzgartner describes it as a car that can meet "customers' increasingly technologically savvy expectations." 

Of course, when the twin-turbocharged 2.9-liter V6 (the same engine in the Audi RS 5, no less than) joins the fun, it will not whisper. This and the electric motor produce a total of 536bhp of power, which will allow Bentley to accelerate from 0-62mph in just 4.3 seconds. 

In addition to the thoughtful materials and the effectiveness of the power system, this Flying Spur has another important aspect: its name. Bentley called the first version of this electric model the "Odysseus Edition", and Greek scholars don't need to know that this is a tribute to the legendary warrior king Odysseus. After the Trojan War ended, it took him 10 years to return home, and the title of the epic related to this journey in Homer's epic — the Odyssey — has become a shorthand for any great cause.

In the process of transition to electrification, Bentley is not the only one to shoulder the task of Odyssey, but its challenges are more difficult than most people. After all, the company is the world's largest manufacturer of 12-cylinder gasoline engines and a brand that was previously synonymous with high-power, high-consumption, supercharged "blower" engines-these things are being excluded by legislation. The future, and it's out of date. Alas, even the "Bentley Boys" who have been so closely associated with the brand in the last century seem to be a small group today. 

So what should Bentley do? Well, it is innovating-it can look back at the last 102 years of its life because it did so. Take EXP 1; this is the original prototype of Bentley and a model of the 3 Litre, the first car developed by the company more than 100 years ago. EXP 1 recently lent its name to another Bentley prototype, the EXP 100 GT, which was unveiled on the company's 100th anniversary in 2019 to show what the Bentley luxury wagon will look like in 2035.

The Flying Spur Hybrid is described by its manufacturer as the first major production vehicle to "implement design influence" from the EXP 100 GT, and it is also the "first step" in Bentley's journey to introduce sustainable materials into the next century.

However, this is far from the only step in Bentley's strategy to go beyond 100 in the next 100 years. After spending a leisurely afternoon at the company’s corporate headquarters in Crewe, Cheshire, Bentley conducted a series of talks on how to ensure the sustainability of its materials, which began seven years before the new product appeared in its cars. . 

This is the length of time that Maria Mulder, the head of Bentley's color and decoration, told us that a new material needs to go through various stages, starting with "reconnaissance" and "exploration", and then proceed with the preliminary development and decide to purchase and launch approved materials. Before, whether they should be used.

"Is that beautiful? Luxury? Is it Bentley?" Mulder said the company would ask itself some questions before deciding whether to introduce a new surface or finish. Mulder told us that another dilemma facing the company is: "If the car of the future doesn't have leather, what will it smell like?"

Unlike pineapples, we bet that "pineapple skin"-an alternative to animal skin made from pineapple leaf fiber-is one that Bentley chose not to develop. Another uncut finish is a textile made of mushroom spores and fibers (a senior executive put his fingers through it, exposing its fragility). Palm leaves and corks still receive attention, even if they are not signed.

An impressive sample material that caught our eye was a beautiful prototype ceramic inlay, which was pressed into a part of the dashboard. "We have been working on this patented process for three or four years," Mulder told us, and then added that the technology to do this perfectly with ceramic sheets was developed in cooperation with an aerospace company.

We jokingly asked what the carbon footprint of this aerospace company looks like, and a colleague of Mulder politely told us that the company does not launch rockets or planes itself, but cooperates with companies that do so.

For Bentley customers, similar emissions-based threads can be eliminated. These people buy cars from a company that intends to be carbon-neutral by 2030-a noble intention-and it is said that 80% of all cars it makes are still on the road-an almost unheard of Sustainability statistics for the automotive industry. 

But contrary to this statement, the average Bentley buyer owns eight cars, and these people are likely to be "high net worth individuals", usually defined as people with at least £1 million in liquid assets—in other words, cash— In their account. These customers may have multiple houses around the world at their disposal. There may even be one or two private jets to send them to these destinations, and a yacht can be used at will after they arrive.

One detail we found in Crewe was that the car was very obvious when refueling. This is rare in Flying Spur Hybrid, customers think it is very popular; "You don't have to drive to the gas station to be seen", we overheard. Then compare with the owner's yachts, these yachts can be moored at sea, their profligacy, their privacy is at the core of their attractiveness. If we accept that Bentleys can be sustainable and ecologically conscious, can their owners say the same? The jury came out. But does wealth like to whisper? you bet.

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