LONDON — Bentley will embark on its “greatest product offensive” with plans to introduce 5 full-electric autos in 5 years beginning in 2025.
The primary full-electric automobile might be launched in late 2025 and can create a fifth product line, CEO Adrian Hallmark stated throughout a web-based presentation Wednesday.
The brand new automobile will “create and form a section,” Hallmark stated, with out giving extra element. “The primary BEV is a game-changer,” he stated.
The EVs that observe will exchange Bentley’s current lineup beginning in 2026, main as much as the automaker’s plan to promote solely full-electric autos by 2030. “The present vehicles might be transformed to electrical variations,” Hallmark stated.
Bentley possible will begin with the Bentayga SUV, its bestseller. Bentley additionally sells the Flying Spur sedan, Continental GT coupe and Continental GT convertible.
Bentley stated on Wednesday that it’ll make investments 2.5 billion pounds ($3.36 billion) over the next 10 years as a part of the plan to affect, together with development of a brand new plant at its headquarters in Crewe, England, for its first EV.
The brand new facility will use automated guided autos to maneuver our bodies round somewhat than a standard conveyor belt, stated Peter Bosch, Bentley’s head of producing. “It’ll give us the final word flexibility in quantity,” he stated.
Utilizing automated autos is most well-liked by low-volume producers as a result of they permit meeting stations to be skipped for various variants and so they require decrease capital expenditures than a standard meeting line.
Bentley, which is owned by Volkswagen Group, stated the brand new funding might be self-funded from its earnings, that are anticipated to hit a excessive after the model offered a report 14,659 autos in 2021. The automaker will launch 2021 monetary ends in March.
The funding might want to pay for an entire overhaul of product improvement and manufacturing, together with switching to extra software-defined autos, incorporating autonomous capabilities and “digitizing the worth chain,” stated Jan-Henrik Lafrentz, Bentley’s CFO.
“The problem is absolutely large in entrance of us,” Lafrentz stated. Bentley is not going to search U.Okay. authorities funding to assist pay for the transformation, he stated.
Ultraluxury automakers have been slower to maneuver to electrification and have lengthy stated the that full-electric know-how isn’t but able to fulfill the calls for of their prospects. The 2025 date is much sufficient away that it “leaves us time to verify our prospects have a really luxurious expertise,” stated Alain Favey, Bentley’s new head of gross sales.
The primary ultraluxury full-electric automobile will come from U.Okay. rival Rolls-Royce, which is able to launch the Spectre coupe in 2023, two years earlier than Bentley. Ferrari will launch its first full-electric car in 2025, whereas Lamborghini has stated its first full-electrical automobile will seem by 2030.