Four days after Bentley unveiled the Torcal in London, a silver one was parked at a Beverly Hills curb after dark with its grille lit up. The clip was posted to Instagram by the verified account @noahsccristiano, tagged Beverly Hills, California, and captioned "Brand new Bentley Torcal."Bentley revealed the Torcal, its first fully electric car and its fourth model line, on September 23. The launch release describes "a distinctive illuminated diamond grille" and says the front end reinterprets the Continental T "through advanced lighting technology." That is nearly all it says about the grille. There is no word on brightness, color, animation, or whether the owner can switch it off.Bentley's own dusk photography shows the grille lit, much as it appeared in Beverly Hills. Photo: Bentley Motors (press image)What the clip showsThe car sits at the curb near a Tiffany & Co. storefront, with a steel loading ramp in the foreground of the frame. The diamond pattern is lit edge to edge inside a bright surround, and at night it outshines the headlamps beside it. No license plate is visible, and the post doesn't say who owns the car, how it got there, or whether it is a customer car, a dealer demonstrator or a Bentley press unit.The trim offers one clue. According to the release, the core Torcal comes with satin silver brightware as standard, while the Torcal S gets black brightware, black mirror caps and dark rear lamps. The Beverly Hills car's grille surround and trim read silver, which points to the core model rather than the S.Bentley's published figures for the two launch versions:Torcal: 821 PS (810 hp), 1,194 Nm (881 lb-ft), 0-60 mph in 3.3 seconds, 155 mph top speedTorcal S: 888 PS (876 hp) and 1,350 Nm (996 lb-ft) with Launch Control active, 0-60 mph in 2.8 seconds, 162 mph top speedBoth: two permanent magnet synchronous motors, 113 kWh net battery at 800 volts, up to 375 miles WLTP, five meters long, 460-liter trunk plus a 90-liter front compartmentBentley says the S's 1,350 Nm is the most torque of any Bentley ever made, and that the engineers capped acceleration there on purpose because most customers find anything harder uncomfortable. We covered the other half of that pitch, the drum, viola and bass guitar soundtrack Bentley recorded to stand in for a V8, when the car debuted.What Bentley hasn't said for AmericaBentley's US Torcal page carries a disclaimer that models "are shown for illustration purposes only and may include features that are not available on the US model." Neither that page nor the release says whether the illuminated grille is one of those features. A lit grille on a California street is one data point, and nothing in the clip confirms the car is built to US specification.The release also skips US pricing, delivery dates, curb weight and an EPA range. The 375-mile figure is a WLTP number, the European test cycle, which usually comes out higher than the EPA rating for the same car.Bentley calls the Torcal's rear treatment the "prestigious shield." Photo: Bentley Motors (press image)Two charging timesThe release disagrees with itself on charging. Its summary bullets promise a 10 to 80 percent charge "in 16 minutes at 400 kW." Further down, the body text says the same charge takes "just under 20 minutes." Both passages agree that seven minutes on a 400 kW charger adds about 100 miles. The battery carries a 10-year, 100,000-mile warranty.The Torcal is built in Crewe, and several of its interior finishes come from Mulliner, the in-house division that just built three one-off Continentals themed on the sun, Earth and moon. Among the Torcal's new options are Ombré Walnut, pressed from up to 1,000 layers of walnut off-cuts and recycled paper, and Sunburst Aluminium, a brushed finish modeled on the engine-turned dashboards of older Bentleys.All four doors are powered, and the release says the driver's door closes when the driver presses the brake pedal. Bentley has not given a US on-sale date or a price. The next document to watch for is the EPA certification, which will put an American range figure on the car.Does a glowing grille belong on a Bentley, or should the Torcal's face stay dark at night?Sources: Bentley Motors, "The all-new Bentley Torcal makes global debut" (September 23, 2026); Bentley Motors US Torcal page; Instagram reel by @noahsccristiano, Beverly Hills, California.
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