All-electric Bentley target-date extended to 2035
Luxury automotive brand Bentley is delaying its switch to all-electric by five years.
Bentley began planning a strategy called Beyond100 in 2019, the centenary of the company’s launch, and introduced it in 2020. As part of Beyond100, it committed to becoming “a fully electrified car company by 2030”.
Now, though, it is relaunching the strategy as Beyond100+ and has said it will be 2035 before it goes fully electric.
Presenting an update on the strategy on November 7, chief executive, Dr Frank-Steffen Walliser, said that what the original strategy had achieved in four years had been impressive. Three of the company’s models, the Flying Spur Hybrid, Bentayga Hybrid and GTC Hybrid, are already available with hybrid powertrains.
The company’s first battery electric vehicle (BEV) will launch in 2026. It describes the car as a luxury urban SUV.
However, under the new Beyond100+ strategy, it will continue to plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and internal combustion engine vehicles at least until the mid-2030s.
Explaining the change in strategy, Dr Walliser said: “The automotive market looks different now.” He insisted Bentley remained committed to decarbonisation, but said that after “listening carefully to customers” it had decided to push out its ‘fully electric’ pledge to 2035 and to continue to offer other models for at least the next ten years. He said this made for “a balanced portfolio”.
The chief executive said he was excited about the BEV model that will launch in 2026 and emphasised that the vehicle will offer a good mix of fast charging speeds and extensive driving range, although he said it was too early to give figures for these.
Dr Walliser said Bentley had seen “a dip in the market” for BEVs, but was sure demand for these vehicles would come back. He expressed hope that “a second wave” of demand might coincide with the launch of Bentley’s all-electric urban SUV in 2026.
Then he said: “We have to be honest. There is not a lot of demand among today’s Bentley customers for a BEV model. But there are new customers who want a modern version of a Bentley. Those new customers are the target for this launch, and we think we will convince existing customers too.”
Image: Bentley Motors.
