Bentley's first fully electric SUV already swaps the engine growl for a drum soundtrack, and the Crewe carmaker now lets buyers upgrade to an actual human drummer.
Bentley's first fully electric car, the Torcal, replaces the engine growl with a drum soundtrack. Now buyers can upgrade to a live drummer in the boot, in three tiers. Chad Stockworth III calls it the biggest play in mobility.
Bentley will let buyers of its first fully electric car upgrade from recorded drums to a live human drummer, seated in the boot. Lads, I have seen the future of mobility, and it has a snare.
The base product is already a banger. The Torcal SUV comes with a drum soundtrack to replace the classic combustion growl. It starts at £173,000, making it Bentley's cheapest model. It will be built in Crewe as part of a £350m investment that secures the jobs of the 4,000 workers there.
But recorded drums are legacy tech. Anyone can stream a beat. True luxury means owning the supply chain of the beat itself.
The upgrade comes in three tiers. "Session" gets you one drummer using brushes only, tuned for the school run. "Stadium" adds a second man whose job is to yell "yeah" at roundabouts. "Heritage" gets you a drummer trained to cough like a cold V8 on frosty mornings.
"Customers told us they missed feeling like the car was angry," said Pemberton Ashcroft-Vale, Bentley's Head of Acoustic Legacy Monetisation. "A drummer is anger with a pension plan."
The drummer economy is here
There are trade-offs, obviously, because disruption is never free. The Torcal can travel up to 375 miles on a single charge. The drummer cannot. Engineers call it "human battery degradation" and say it gets worse after a service-station meal deal. Bentley's fix is a walnut-veneered snack drawer mounted just behind the rear seats. The company describes it as "range-extending hospitality". I describe it as a moat. Your neighbour's Tesla has software updates. Your Torcal has a guy called Dean who knows all of Phil Collins and eats flapjacks at the lights.
Investors are already circling. "Drummers are the new lithium," said Tobias Vantwerp, partner at Hypergrowth Hollow Ventures. "Scarce, rhythmic, and very hard to recycle." His fund is pivoting its entire portfolio into drumstick futures.
Not everyone is vibing. One Crewe percussion instructor asked whether the drummer gets a seatbelt, a window, or a legal definition. Bentley says all three are "on the roadmap".
Training for the first drummers begins Monday, in three-hour shifts on a rolling road. Ashcroft-Vale said candidates must hold a steady tempo through a pothole and never, under any circumstances, attempt a solo on the M6.
I have pre-ordered the Heritage tier. The car goes silent at a charger, which is fine. That is when Dean does his cough.
