Bentley wants its electric cars to twitch like a V8 — and patented exactly how

© A. Krivonosov

Bentley has found an unusual way to make an electric car feel like a machine with a big internal-combustion engine under the hood. A new patent from the brand describes a system that uses an active suspension to imitate the light body roll caused by the torque of a V6 or V8.

In a classic car with a longitudinally mounted engine, a sharp stab of the throttle can shift the body slightly because of the powertrain’s reaction. In an electric car that effect is almost gone: torque arrives quickly, evenly, and without any mechanical theatre. Bentley wants to bring the sensation back artificially — not through dedicated vibration motors, but through the active suspension that’s already there.

According to the patent, the system will be able to raise and lower one side of the body using the air-spring elements. Travel can range from 3 mm to 5 cm, and the response should take no more than a second, ideally around 0.5 seconds. The roll itself will stay below one degree: Bentley specifically notes that the effect should be noticeable but must not spoil ride comfort. After all, this is a Bentley, not a drag car on a coil-bound rear end.

The second idea is imitating brake torque, when the driver holds the brake while pressing the accelerator, loading the rear axle before launch. In an EV, Bentley could simply lower the rear end in Launch Control mode, creating the visual and physical sense of the car «squatting» before a hard acceleration run.

In theory the brand could offer different roll profiles tied to specific historical models. Bentley is unlikely to copy the Dodge Charger Hemi, but mimicking its own old 6.75-litre V8 or even pre-war engines would feel entirely in character.

That’s exactly where the argument starts. For Dodge such a feature would look natural: the brand has long sold noise, roughness, and showmanship. Bentley, by contrast, builds its image on silence, comfort, and enormous power without any strain. So trying to give an EV an artificial «ICE character» looks both technically clever and philosophically questionable.

A patent doesn’t guarantee a production feature. But it neatly illustrates the problem facing luxury EVs: manufacturers worry that perfect silence and smoothness will make their cars feel too alike. So a future Bentley might not just drive quickly — it might also deliberately remind the owner that a big engine once lived under that long bonnet.