Bentley’s Blue Train Myth Meets the Electric Age

2 min read

Bentley’s EXP 15 concept car, inspired by the Blue Train legend, explores the brand’s ability to blend heritage with innovation in the electric vehicle age. By leveraging the Blue Train myth, Bentley differentiates itself from other luxury EVs, emphasizing narrative over technical specifications.

Bentley’s Blue Train Myth Meets the Electric Age
Bentley

The Setup

The story of the Blue Train Bentley is pure marketing gold. A 1930 wager, a playboy boss, a saloon that beat a luxury train by four minutes. Over the decades, the tale got twisted, retold, immortalized in the wrong car, and finally canonized as legend. Today, it is Bentley’s proof of character: daring, caddish, and fast.

Now that same myth fuels the EXP 15, a six-metre concept that scraps the old face of Bentley and gambles on a new silhouette. It is part sedan, part coupe, part crossover, and very much an experiment. The grille becomes art installation, the badge glows sharper, and the interior has three seats, not four. A provocation more than a preview.

The marketign play is heritage as anchor, experimentation as spark. The Blue Train gives Bentley its swagger. The EXP 15 tests if that swagger can survive the EV age.


The Breakdown

Bentley

Brand Positioning & Identity

Bentley positions itself as the intersection of heritage swagger and forward-looking design. The EXP 15 is not a production promise but a provocation, a concept that dares to stretch Bentley’s DNA without severing it.

Target Segment & Audience

Ultra-luxury buyers, enthusiasts, and opinion shapers who value story as much as specs. The audience includes collectors who revere Bentley’s myths as well as next-gen wealthy clients looking for bold EV statements.

Messaging & Storytelling

The narrative leans on the Blue Train legend, a rebellious, romantic, and quintessentially Bentley story. By tying EXP 15 to that myth, the brand reframes a risky design experiment as the natural continuation of a daring legacy.

Experience & Journey

From myth to metal, Bentley invites its audience to imagine stepping into a future where electrification does not dilute heritage but recharges it. The journey is reassurance through storytelling, guiding customers from nostalgia to innovation.

Community & Culture Insight

In car culture, stories matter as much as horsepower. The Blue Train is folklore in motion, and EV adoption in luxury markets is still filtered through heritage and status. Bentley leverages myth as cultural capital to soften the EV leap.

Differentiation & USP

Other luxury EVs talk tech, efficiency, or luxury. Bentley talks myth. By anchoring the EXP 15 in one of the most infamous stories in motoring history, they differentiate on narrative power rather than specs.

Design Language

An illuminated grille as art, sharp new badge, asymmetric doors, and an endless bonnet line. These cues remix old Bentley proportions into futuristic language, blending recognition with provocation.

The Marketing Pitch

The EXP 15 is Bentley testing whether the swagger of the Blue Train can carry into the EV era. It sells heritage not as a weight to be carried but as a spark for reinvention, a gamble on identity as much as design.


Is This A Winning Pitch?

Would you call this Bentley’s next chapter, or a step too far from the brand’s DNA?


EXP Concept Link: https://www.bentleymotors.com/en/models/concept-cars.html#4

More Images at Top Gear: https://www.topgear.com/car-news/big-reads/face-how-historic-blue-train-bentley-inspired-bentley-exp-15-concept