REVIEW | Bentley Continental GT 2025

The latest Bentley Continental is a hybrid hit

It was a huge shame to hear Bentley was going to stop building cars with the W12 that made its Continental GT so famous, but when it announced it was replacing it with a hybridised twin-turbo V8, eyebrows were raised, interest was piqued, and people got excited. This is partly due to the promised EV range and partly because it has 771bhp, which is almost Bugatti territory. The new generation of Bentley Continental GT is here, and it’s really quite something. 

Let’s be real, you know what you’re getting with a modern Bentley. The interior is a feast of quilting, knurling, metal, leather, materials that Mary and Joseph would have thought were ‘a bit much,’ and, well, all sorts of wonderful. The seats have multiple massage settings, the NAIM soundsystem will play your podcast of choice (Driven, obviously) so loudly, and with such clarity that you can almost hear how long it’s been since the host last had a swig of refreshing tea. Even though it’s not quite as pricey as a house in the Midlands, you’ll never live in something as wonderfully appointed, no matter how hard you try. Probably. 

Exterior

The exterior is new, but also familiar. The Continental GT silhouette and design lines are present and correct, but have a look at its snout - there are two headlamps there, not four. It’s a small difference, but an important one. It works for the car, too, giving it a sharper look. While yes, it’s still massive and very much suited to being a GT, the new snout makes it look more purposeful and ‘sporty.’ After more than 20 years with the same style, a new pair of sunnies or a different haircut never goes amiss, after all. 

The new car looks and feels BIG. It’s long, it’s wide, and it doesn’t really feel like it was made to fit in the city. It’s got the air of a car that belongs on Route One, or in the Spanish countryside. In London some streets make bits of you clench - big wheels, high kerbs, and narrow streets do not a happy combo make. In the open it’s a joy. And, of course, it looks fantastic with room to breathe. 

Powertrain

The star of the show is the new powertrain: a 4.0-litre turbocharged V8 attached to a hybrid system. Combined in the Mulliner and Speed specs (I had the Mulliner to play with), the two make 771bhp and 738lb ft, which I must say is quite a lot of power. Bentley recently launched a lower-power set up, which still comes with more grunt than is strictly necessary, but hey ho. Accelerating from 0-62mph takes 3.2 seconds, and it’ll do more than 200mph given the space. It’s all a bit silly. It would feel less silly if it wasn’t so efficient. See, if you use the car’s 188bhp 332lb ft ‘leccy motor alone, you’ll get 50 miles ish without using any petrol at all. Use it in combination with the engine on the motorway and you’ll find yourself doing more than 30mpg on a cruise. In a 771bhp car that feels more than a tiny bit dissonant. The fact that you can cruise silently in it through town, or even on the motorway, feels not wrong, and oh so right. 

A future electric Bentley may not be a bad thing

See, while Bentley hasn’t played its EV hand just yet, it’s a brand that’ll suit ‘leccy locomotion. The W12 that preceded this car’s hybrid set up wasn’t known for its epic soundtrack, but rather how quiet and reserved it is. The Flying Spur and Mulsanne are/were famed for their whisper-quiet ride, so electricity would suit them down to the ground. Hell, even the GT works with a little bit of it. Bentley seems to be shying away from the noisier side of things with the new Continental GT - give it a footful creates a nice noise in the cabin, but not a huge amount outside. Here, electricity is used for efficiency and incredible pace. 

Performance & Driving Experience

The way this thing puts its power down is, frankly, rude. Torque is fired to all four wheels, and is perfectly stuck into the ground, lunging you forward without so much as a moment’s notice. It’s not violent, but if a stranger gave you a similar sort of shove in a bar, you’d turn around and lamp them…after you’d crawled back in through the window.

Of course, you don’t have to mash the gas every time you want to move forward, and its throttle pedal is easy to modulate. Much as you’d expect from a Bentley, it’s smoooooooth. There are a handful of drive modes to play with, but the only one you’ll care about is ‘Bentley.’ Designed to make the car feel suitably…Bentleyish, it’s a pleasing mix of comfort and outright silliness. Of course, twiddle the drive select to ‘Comfort’ and the ride will become sofa-soft, while the performance is still quite mad. 

It steers wonderfully, without feeling too heavy, nor so light that you get the impression you’re steering a cloud. It, as W.O. Bentley would have liked, is ‘just so.’ Lest we forget about the brakes - they’re massive, and do a damn good job of slowing you in a hurry. Its gearbox is smooth, quick, and silent, even when you expect it to be in a hurry. 

Another hit from Bentley

To be honest, we all knew the new Continental GT was going to be a stellar drive. Since the firm’s relaunch at the turn of the century, it’s not made a single duff car (even though you might not have liked the look of the original Bentayga, it was still a good drive so shhhh). Hybridisation has just made it excellent at a greater speed.

READ: Bentley EXP 15 concept provides clues to brand’s electric future

words: Alex Goy
pictures: Bentley