The Bentley Continental is the quintessential Bentley of the modern era.
From the inception of the first generation back in the late 1990s to its public release in 2003, the Continental has remained the Bentley to have. Now in its fouth generation, the new 2025 Bentley Continental GT Speed has ditched its iconic W12 engine and gone the way of a plug-in hybrid, so does it still have the same appeal?
To put in numbers just how successful the Continental has been for Bentley, the 100,000th example of the model will be built early in 2025. Without Continental, there would be no Bentley.
So for the British brand to ditch its iconic 12-cylinder engine and go hybrid is a huge risk, but to not embrace change and remain stagnant, is an even bigger risk.
The fourth-generation Conti brings with it a lot of firsts: a new V8 twin-turbo plug-in hybrid powertrain that is shared with Porsche, an entirely new architecture underneath the car that allows for more than 80km of pure electric driving and a whole new generation of interior technology systems.
WATCH: Paul’s walk-around video of the 2025 Bentley Continental GT Speed
Its also the first time that Bentley has launched the Continental GT Speed coupe and convertible prior to the base models.
Perhaps taking a note out of Porsche’s playbook and going for the top-spec variants first, the Continental GT Speed will appeal to Bentley loyalists and those who want the flagship with the best performance first up, instead of having to wait for the gradual rollout of lesser grades, as was the case before.
Before we get into the technical details of the new Continental, let’s focus on the aesthetics first, because there are some significant departures in that department as well.
Bentley says the new Continental’s design is akin to a ‘resting beast’. Bentley designers took inspiration from the form of a ‘tiger stalking its prey’, which is also why the biggest design change to the front of a Bentley model in a very long time is debuting with the fourth-generation Continental.
Excluding one-off coachbuilds by Mulliner, the last Bentley not to have four round headlights at the front was made in 1959, so it’s been a very long time since we’ve seen Bentleys with with single headlights.
In many respects and given the significant departure from what was before, the new new headlights define the new face of Bentley.
There is an element of simplicity to the new frontal design, with cleaner and more muscular lines that Bentley says give the car a more aggressive and focused look.
As you would expect from a Bentley, it’s not just a regular headlight but more like a piece of fine jewellery. Get up close and you will notice a very distinct cut crystal effect and illuminated pattern below the projectors. Bentley says these highlights are only for the GT Speed, while other Continental variants will have their own distinct design.
The rear of the Continental presents the same theme of muscular simplicity. There is no longer a deployable spoiler in the bootlid, with Bentley designers having gone for a clean aero surface instead. The diamond-cut effect smoked grey tail-lights themselves blend beautifully with the new rear bumper and exhaust system.
There will be a variety of wheel choices for the new Continental, but the launch cars pictured here were on 22-inch GT Speed-specific rims.
How much does the Bentley Continental GT cost?
Two variants of the Bentley Continental will be offered at launch.
| Model | Price before on-road costs |
|---|---|
| 2025 Bentley Continental GT Speed | $581,900 |
| 2025 Bentley Continental GTC Speed | $639,800 |
To see how the Bentley Continental GT lines up against the competition, check out our comparison tool.
What is the Bentley Continental GT like on the inside?
Bentley and Rolls-Royce interiors are the benchmarks of the automotive industry. Both brands allow customers to basically build an interior from almost any material (including stone) and customise to a degree that is unrivalled by any other brand.
With that being the case, while the new Continental GT Speed is a significant design and mechanical change from its predecessor, the interior is very much a Bentley, being more of an evolution than a revolution.
There remains the same level of incredible craftsmanship as before, with new options of dark tinted and black chrome colour schemes that replace the bright surfaces on the inside, which Bentley says will give the car a far more modern look.
There is the option for new 3D patterns in the doors and in the seats – which we found incredibly comfortable – and the brand has kept its rotating display, so you can have the widescreen touchscreen option or three analogue gauges. It’s a nice way to have a digital detox and bring back some of the old-school elements of what made these cars so special.
Although it is technically a four-seater, the back seats are not made for adults on long commutes. It will do the job for when you have some guests or kids that need the space for quick trips, but this is essentially a two-seater with option for two additional temporary occupants.
The interior has a unique wrap-around feel that Bentley says is meant to be like a cocoon. It’s certainly an incredibly comfortable place to be and, given this is one of the world’s best GTs, it’s an ideal car to be in for eating up long highway miles or going out for a leisurely drive on any given day.
We also got to briefly experience the Continental convertible, which has the same roof mechanism as the previous model. It opens and closes at up to speeds of around 48km/h. The Continental has always lent itself well to a convertible body and the new fourth-generation car is no different.
There are a whole array of new interior features which we hope to experience on the vehicle when it arrives in Australia over the next few months, but a particular one worth noting is the new air-conditioning system that Bentley claims has a particulate matter filtration function using air ionization.
Essentially, your Bentley will ionize the air if it feels the quality is below standards, removing particulates before it enters the cabin.
It also has some clever technologies for automatically switching to recirculation when entering bad air quality areas like tunnels.
Bentley manages to blend its benchmark interior quality craftsmanship with a host of technological features you’d probably not expect.
Although we are yet to confirm if it will be available in Australia, the new connected services app allows you to park your Bentley remotely and then summon the car back to you, all using your smartphone.
Owners can manage plug-in hybrid charging as well as cabin preconditioning for those particularly hot or cold days. This means that apart from turning on the air-con before you even step inside your Bentley, you can now turn on the heat seaters as well.
Like some other OEMs, Bentley has also decided that it wants to own the in-car infotainment journey, rather than passing it on to Apple or Google for its mirror systems (which it supports).
As such, you can download the Spotify app directly into your Bentley, which means you don’t have to have a phone connected to the car. We find this scenario rather unnecessary and unlikely to get much use.
We had extremely limited time with the new Continental and as such didn’t get to experience the car’s infotainment system as much as we would’ve liked, but we were impressed by the speed and quality of the screens.
Bentley is fortunate enough to have access to other Volkswagen group product technologies, so we anticipate a smooth and bug-free experience.
| Dimensions | Bentley Continental GT Speed |
|---|---|
| Length | 4895mm |
| Width | 2187mm |
| Height | 1397mm |
| Wheelbase | 2851mm |
To see how the Bentley Continental lines up against the competition, check out our comparison tool.
What’s under the bonnet?
For the last few decades, Bentley has been the biggest seller of 12-cylinder engines globally. That has all changed now, with the W12 sent to the history books and replaced by the new 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 plug-in powertrain, which the company co-developed with Porsche.
While admitting that working with Porsche on the project proved challenging, what the end result has bestowed upon us is the most powerful Bentley ever launched. This sees a combined power output of 575kW and 1000Nm of torque, which is claimed to send the new Continental from 0-100km/h in just 3.2 seconds and a top speed of 335km/h.
Matched to an eight-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission, the new V8 engine is simpler than the one that came before it. There are no twin-scroll turbos or additional complexities, which means it can now run leaner (and hotter) for better efficiency. This is all because the electric powertrain helps compensate for where the engine previously had to fill in the gaps.
The V8 by itself develops an impressive 441kW, but it’s the addition of the 140kW e-motor that sits within the gearbox that changes the Continental’s character entirely. Thanks to its Samsung-supplied 25.9 kWh battery, which sits behind the rear axle, the Continental is able to drive in electric mode for over 80km. This electric powertrain – with its 450Nm of torque – is enough to get the average owner around their daily commute without ever engaging the V8.
The different modes in the vehicle will allow the driver to pick how much power is deployed or whether the battery charge should be held (particularly useful in Europe, where designated electric-only zones are mandated). You can also charge the battery entirely using the V8 engine, though this would defeat the purpose of using clean energy to charge the battery at home.
You can plug the car in at home and it will charge on AC power at 11kW, which means in just over two hours of charging per night the Continental can essentially act like a full-blown EV, and then when the times comes to have some fun or go for a longer commute, the V8 engine will be ready and willing to take over.
Bentley was very keen to point out to us that the new powertrain is significantly better than its iconic W12, not just in terms of efficiency and fuel economy, but also in performance. The company sees the main competitors to the Continental as the Ferrari Roma and Aston Martin DB12, both of which lack an electric motor and are as such outdone by the Bentley in terms of power and torque.
| Specifications | Bentley Continental GT |
|---|---|
| Engine | 4.0-litre twin-turbocharged V8 engine |
| Engine outputs | 441kW 800Nm |
| Electric motor outputs | 140kW 450Nm |
| System outputs | 575kW 1000Nm |
| Battery | 25.9kWh battery |
| Transmission | 8-speed automatic |
| Driven wheels | AWD |
| Weight | 2459kg (kerb) |
| Fuel economy (claimed) | 10.3L/100km |
| Electric driving range (PHEV) | 81km |
| CO2 emissions | 29g/km |
To see how the Bentley Continental lines up against the competition, check out our comparison tool.
How does the Bentley Continental GT drive?
We flew to the outskirts of Tokyo to a billionaire-owned private racetrack resort called Magarigawa. Notwithstanding the venue being perhaps one of the most spectacular driving experiences you can ever have, the Continetnal simply didn’t suit the track’s many blind corners or its tight and unforgiving characteristics.
Having said that, in our very brief number of laps, it became evident that the nearly 2.5-tonne Bentley Continental is an engineering marvel. With its AWD system incorporating super-fancy torque vectoring technologies and an electronic limited-slip differential, it manages to hide its weight rather well.
Also, the large battery sits behind the rear axle and under the boot floor, which means that for the first-time ever, we have a continental GT with a rear-biased weight distribution of 49:51 front:rear. Doesn’t matter how you break it down, the car is inherently more mechanically balanced than any of its predecessors.
In the driver’s seat we found the new Continental super responsive and very, very quick. There is a sense of instant torque thanks to its electrified powertrain and, while nobody needs a car that goes from 0-100km/h in 3.2 seconds, if you’re spending close to $700,000 on such car, performance is a prerequisite.
But if you’re expecting a car with blistering performance, this is not it. This is an incredibly fast GT that brings a super luxury experience, but it’s not going to go head to head with a Porsche 911 GTS or Ferrari 296 GTB for outright performance.
Though we didn’t get to really experience the Continental on any rough road surfaces, we used the track’s ripple strips to test the car’s new 48-volt active electric anti-roll control systems in combination with the new dual-valve dampers. It’s fair to say the new Continental can be super stiff in Sport mode and even more comfortable in Comfort, giving it a true dual-personality.
The steering and overall feel of the car was very assuring. The electric powertrain and the V8 engine worked harmoniously together and we could barely feel when one was kicking in over the other.
The eight-speed transmission also worked a treat. The V8 engine turns itself off when needed and because it no longer has a starter motor, its reignition is super smooth and barely noticeable.
You can force the Continental to preserve its battery for later or use both powertrains for maximum performance and you can pick EV-only mode, which will see the car use up all its battery before reverting to the engine. You can stay in EV mode until you hit 75 per cent of throttle or get to speeds above 140km/h.
One thing we do miss from the new Continental is the W12 and the previous-generation’s V8 exhaust note and engine sound.
Yes, the new one still crackles and pops in sport mode, but it’s overtly silent the majority of the time. Bentley says it resisted any temptation to add artificial noise, keeping all that you hear completely organic, with not even a speaker enhanced sound track inside the cabin.
While we appreciate the authenticity of the experience, it only highlights the unfortunate world in which we live in today, where regulators have tried their best to kill any enjoyment one could find from the automobile.
Bentley has also introduced a set of new active safety systems, which we didn’t get to try out. Nonetheless, the Continental can apparently monitor up to five cars nearby, meaning it can navigate its way around traffic and drive semi autonomously. We will remain skeptical of such claims until we get to test them in Australia.
Is the Bentley Continental GT safe?
The new Continental has not been independently safety-rated at this time and is unlikely to be in the future given the limited number of cars sold.
We would take an educated guess that given Bentley is part of the Volkswagen group of brands, its safety and occupant protection systems are world-class and, if it was tested, it would achieve the highest score for occupant protection.
How much does the Bentley Continental GT cost to run?
There is currently no information around servicing costs or service intervals for the new Bentley Continental.
To see how the Bentley Continental lines up against the competition, check out our comparison tool.
CarExpert’s Take on the Bentley Continental GT
The fourth-generation Bentley Continental is a masterpiece of engineering and the dawn of a new product cycle for the British brand.
The ability to offer the best of both worlds in terms of low-emission motoring with electrification as well as driving enjoyment via a higher performance V8 is no easy feat.
But to put that all together in a super luxury and highly personalisable package that makes you never want to leave the cabin is yet another feat that only a brand like Bentley could execute.
While Rolls-Royce sits on the super luxury side of the equation and brands like Ferrari, Lamborghini and even Aston Martin try and tackle the performance mantle, Bentley sits right in the middle, where most buyers would also like to be. For that reason, there is no better GT in the world right now than the new Bentley Continental GT Speed.
Interested in buying a Bentley Continental GT? Get in touch with one of CarExpert’s trusted dealers here.
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