Bentley intended to introduce its first electric model in 2025, but that is not happening. CEO Adrian Hallmark said Automotive News Europe the VE was delayed for a year due to technical issues caused by software issues as well as “platform-related issues”. Crewe’s first electric vehicle is now expected to come out of cover towards the end of 2026, but deliveries to customers will not begin until 2027.
Separately, automobile car has learned that Bentley is also pushing back its goal of going fully electric by the end of the decade. Under the new plan, the British ultra-luxury brand wants to completely get rid of gasoline cars by 2033. The three-year deadline will allow the company to invest more in plug-in hybrids to ensure a smoother transition to an exclusively electric model. programming at the start of the next decade.
The first electric vehicle will be manufactured in the UK and will be supported by the Premium Platform Electric co-developed by Porsche and Audi. The first PPE-based models were recently revealed: the second-generation Macan in January and the Q6 E-Tron earlier this week. While all three brands are owned by the Volkswagen Group, Audi has technically owned Bentley (as well as Lamborghini and Ducati) since 2022.
The decision to delay the arrival of electric vehicles is not surprising. The Macan and Q6 E-Tron were also supposed to arrive sooner, according to initial announcements. Before the first zero-emission model arrives, Bentley is preparing to launch a high-performance plug-in hybrid setup based around a V-8. It will indirectly replace the venerable W-12, which unfortunately disappears with the 740 horsepower Batur.
The company chief admits that Bentley had estimated that demand for hybrids would decline towards the end of the decade, but is now expected to increase. As a result, the premium automaker is investing “hundreds of millions” in a new wave of PHEVs that will remain on sale into the early next decade to meet demand.
We’ll see this punchy V8 PHEV setup in the GT, GTC and Flying Spur later in 2024. The current V-6 PHEV remains while the Bentayga will retain its pure gasoline powertrain until 2026, when the posh SUV is about to go electric only.
The now-delayed electric vehicle will not replace an existing model as it will be a completely different product. When it arrives, it gets a hotter Speed version billed as “the W12 of batteries” with electric motors developed to provide 50-100% more power than the ICEs. For now, the most powerful model on this EPI platform is the Porsche Macan Turbo with 630 horsepower and 833 pound-feet of torque.
The batteries that will go into Bentley’s first electric vehicle will have enough power to go 350 to 450 miles on a single charge, according to a statement made last year by Hallmark. It will take less than 20 minutes to replenish the battery from 10 to 80 percent.
For now, the Bentayga is the undisputed king of sales with a 44 percent share of the total volume in 2023. The Continental GT/GTC follows with 31 percent while the Flying Spur takes the last place on the podium with a share by 25 percent. share percentage. In 2023, total deliveries fell 11% to 13,560 units.
