On December 7, 2022, a worker inspected the Bentayga SUV on the Bentley production line at the Crewe factory in England.
Phil Noble | Reuters
Bentley delayed again Target It exclusively offers fully electric vehicles and plans to continue its shift to plug-in hybrids until at least 2035.
The British maker of ultra-luxury performance cars said on Thursday it still had “ambitions to produce only all-electric vehicles from 2035” but would need to make adjustments due to changing market conditions.
Frank-Steffen Walliser, Bentley’s chairman and chief executive, said there is currently “not a lot of customer demand” for electric vehicles. But he said carmakers needed to meet legislative requirements and prepare for a new generation of customers.
“There’s no question that legislation is driving electrification … but it’s also driving competition,” Walliser said during an online media event Thursday. “We have to be honest, there’s not a lot of demand.”
this VolkswagenOriginally a state-owned car manufacturer Talk about 2020 The company plans to offer fully electric vehicles exclusively by the end of the decade. Former CEO Adrian Hallmark said days before leaving the company that those plans would be delayed several years But no set timetable was given.
Kingfisher Bentley Continental GTC Speed
Adam Jeffery | CNBC
Bentley said it plans to launch a new electric car or plug-in hybrid every year until 2035, and launch its first electric car, a “luxury city SUV” in 2026. starting next year.
“We want to produce plug-in hybrids as long as the market and customers demand them,” Bentley’s head of research and development Matthias Rabe said at a press conference on Thursday.
Rabe said Bentley may continue to launch vehicles with traditional internal combustion engines in the coming years.
Walliser, who took over from Hallmark in July, said the automaker’s first electric vehicles will be smaller than its traditional vehicles, including the current Bentayga SUV.
Hallmark previously said delays in Bentley’s first all-electric car were due to software issues and difficulties developing the vehicle’s architecture to Bentley standards. He has said those challenges were the main driver behind delays in his electric vehicle plans, rather than changing market conditions.
“Four years on from Bentley’s original Beyond100 strategy, we have adapted to today’s economic, market and legislative environment to launch a phase of significant change for tomorrow,” Walliser said in a press release.
Along with these changes, Bentley is also changing the name of its business strategy from “Beyond100” (a nod to the century-old automaker) to “Beyond100+”.
Bentley is known for its luxurious, large and powerful vehicles, with 12- and 8-cylinder engines, and special or exclusive edition models can cost millions of dollars. However, the automaker halted its production The famous “W12” engine Earlier this year, it focused on PHEVs with 8- and 6-cylinder engines.
Plug-in hybrids use an internal combustion engine combined with a hybrid powertrain and have a larger battery than a conventional hybrid as well as a plug to charge the vehicle’s battery. They typically allow drivers to drive a certain number of miles on the battery before the engine is needed to power the car or truck.
