Since the very first Bentley in 1921, the finest Grand Tourers in the world have been sold with wooden dashboards. In recent years, the shaping and application of ethically sourced, sustainable wood veneer to Bentley interiors has been recognised as industry-leading – the skills of the craftspeople in Bentley’s Wood Shop are identical to those of the finest cabinet makers.

Shaping and polishing wood veneer to tolerances measured in tenths of a millimetre bring an intricate, beautiful element of natural luxury to the cabin. The wood set in each Bentayga EWB takes over 10 hours to curate, and will see the first use of the Metal Overlay in Veneer feature in series production for the class-leading SUV.

This optional feature is included on the passenger’s fascia panel and on all four doors. The intricate design consists of individual brushed metal badges crafted to be exceptionally thin - just and 0.07 mm thick.

To create the inlay designs, a process called photo-etching is used. A very fine stencil of the design is laminated to the metal. After some intermediate steps of UV light exposure and developing of the laminate, the main process chemically etches away areas of metal not required, leaving only the inlay design. Etching means there is little manual handling or cutting of the material so the risk of damage is less and the precision that can be achieved is incredibly high. Each badge is then bonded by hand in a precise location on the surface of the veneer, before the part is lacquered and polished.