Aside from the eye candy factor, there's not much to glean from concept cars by high-end luxury manufacturers. However, Bentley's new EXP 15 concept stands out. Not because it's attractive—in fact, I think it's hideous—but because the designers have addressed something few auto design teams have: The fact that climbing in and out of a car is actually very ergonomically awkward.

First off, the car's overall looks. It looks unobjectionable from the top, which is an angle you'd never see it from in real life.

Looking at the car from a real-world angle, however, reveals a regrettable form. It's as if the designers tried to beautify a brick.

They were undoubtedly not helped by their mandate. The concept was inspired by the 1930 Bentley Blue Train which, like most luxury cars of that era, had an extremely high beltline and a train-like form. But the beltline for the EXP 15 can't maintain the same height, and drops it into no man's land, where it's too low to evoke the Blue Train and too high to yield pleasing proportions between top and bottom.

Matters get worse when the car is viewed head-on. Despite being an EV, the EXP 15 pointlessly retains an elaborate grille. This is nonsensical and speaks of a what-do-we-do-about-the-front-end conversation that was never resolved.

The back end isn't much better, resembling a smiling clown, hardly the image Bentley wants to put forth.

Where it does get innovative is with the interior. Most cars of this caliber feature two doors and four seats, or four doors and four seats. Bentley's designers have opted for three doors and three seats instead.

The driver's side features the driver's seat and a single rear passenger seat behind it. The passenger side, in contrast, has a single seat that can slide back and forth on a track.

Special attention has been given to the ingress/egress of this seat—and this seat only. It can not only slide back and rotate 45 degrees, but a section of the roof over it also opens, easing entry and exit. (I have no idea why the marketing imagery instead draws attention to a pampered CG dog.)

Overall it's a very strange concept, and I can't think of any other designers who've been brave enough to go assymetrical with the interior layout. I'd like to see a little more experimentation in this area in the future (though hopefully wrapped within a more pleasing form).

This is a concept car only; there are no production plans.