Bentley Takes a Different Approach to EV Sound: Drums and Strings Instead of Fake V8 Noise

Every automaker building an electric car has faced the same puzzle: how do you make an EV feel exciting when there’s no engine roar? Brands like Porsche. BMW, and Dodge have answered with synthetic engine sounds pumped through speakers. Bentley is going a different route. For its first all-electric SUV, the Torcal, the British luxury marque isn’t trying to trick drivers into hearing a V8.

Instead, it commissioned a live band.

Bentley’s engineers started by recording the company’s iconic V8 in a studio. What they discovered surprised them: it wasn’t the exhaust note that made the engine special, but the rhythm. To test this, they set up two parabolic speakers, one playing the V8 recording, the other a live drummer.

Walking between them, engineers found the cadence and emotional energy were remarkably similar. The subtle imperfections of drumming, they concluded, felt more human than any synthesized note.

So Bentley hired musicians to compose an original soundtrack using drums, viola, and bass guitar. The result, called the “Bentley Dynamic Symphony,” responds to the driver’s throttle, rising with acceleration and easing off when you lift. The brand insists it’s not about replicating an engine, but about capturing the same sense of occasion that made its combustion cars legendary.

Whether wealthy buyers will embrace a viola over a V8 remains to be seen, but it’s certainly a bold gamble. The Torcal debuts September 23 in London, riding on VW Group’s PPE platform with dual-motor all-wheel drive, a 113kWh battery, and over 300 miles of range.