In the world of luxury cars, the rules used to be simple. If you bought a Bentley, you expected your hamon and bottle of Prosecco to arrive at the yacht in perfect chill. The engineers' primary crash test was: «Will the built-in cooler withstand the impact of a champagne cork?» But, it seems the good old days when the aristocrat’s biggest problem was warm whiskey have officially burned away in the blaze of lithium-ion batteries. Welcome to the new reality.

The British brand Bentley unveiled its first fully electric crossover, the Bentley Torcal. Instead of boasting about the various types of Alcantara in the cabin or how the wool insert made of merino gently massages the lower back, they released a press release that is immediately jarring. The team decided to test what would happen if a 30-millimeter steel projectile struck their multi-million dollar «electric vehicle.»

Seriously. Engineers took the Torcal traction battery. It weighs 625 kilograms of high-tech lithium—it costs as much as an apartment in St. Petersburg. To test its durability, they took a cannon and fired a projectile at the battery casing at over 160 km/h.

Why? Bentley claims their battery is protected by a composite ballistic shield capable of withstanding impacts and suppressing fire for two hours. And that shield held up. The battery didn’t rupture, smoke, or turn a handcrafted future interior into a hellish outpost. Indeed… times are changing dramatically. Ten years ago, Bentley marketers sold us quiet luxury and caviar fridges. They checked if a golf club would fit in the trunk. But today, their main argument is: «Guys, we’re driving out from under the shelling without losses.»