A rendering of Bentley’s new electrical car manufacturing operatins in Crewe, England.
Bentley
Bentley Motors plans to spend 2.5 billion kilos (about $3.4 billion) over the following decade to change into a fully electric luxury brand by 2030, the 102-year-old carmaker mentioned Wednesday.
The funding will embrace analysis and improvement and vital upgrades to Bentley’s historic plant manufacturing campus in Crewe, England by 2032, the corporate mentioned. The Crewe Campus is Bentley’s sole meeting facility globally.
Bentley, which is owned by German automaker Volkswagen, introduced its electrification goal in 2020 as a serious a part of its “Beyond100” enterprise transformation plan that additionally contains the corporate changing into end-to-end carbon impartial by 2030. That is the primary time it is disclosed the funding quantity.
Bentley’s first electrical car is scheduled to roll off the manufacturing line in 2025, in line with the corporate.
“Beyond100 is the boldest plan in Bentley’s illustrious historical past, and within the luxurious section. It is an formidable and credible roadmap to carbon neutrality of our whole enterprise system, together with the shift to 100% BEV in simply eight years,” Bentley CEO and Chairman Adrian Hallmark mentioned in a launch.
The change is a serious transfer for the automaker, which is greatest recognized for its uber-luxurious automobiles with eight- and 12-cylinder engines that can cost millions of dollars. It follows a number of different automakers saying they plan to maneuver away from automobiles with conventional inner combustion engines to electrical powertrains.
However not like many mainstream automakers, Bentley will lean on plug-in hybrid electrical automobiles in its transition to all electrical. The corporate plans to completely provide electrified fashions, together with all-electric and plug-in hybrids, starting in 2026. Bentley presently provides a $160,000 plug-in hybrid model of its Bentayga SUV, which incorporates an engine in addition to EV parts and electrical vary.
Bentley’s plans comply with its second consecutive year of record sales. It reported gross sales of 14,659 automobiles final 12 months, a 31% enhance over the corporate’s earlier gross sales document of 11,206 vehicles and SUVs in 2020. The document gross sales occurred whereas a lot of the worldwide automotive business struggled with provide chain points. Most notably, an ongoing scarcity of semiconductor chips.
Bentley Bentayga SUV
Bentley
