Bentley Reverses EV-Only Plan with Petrol Successors for Core Models

Bentley is preparing petrol-powered replacements for the Bentayga, Continental GT and Flying Spur, shifting distant from the all-EV program it had announced earlier. The determination follows a large strategy alteration astatine Porsche past week.

Bentley’s Beyond100 program primitively acceptable the marque connected a way to destruct petrol engines by 2035. That timeline has present been adjusted arsenic portion of a wider Volkswagen Group rethink. Porsche precocious confirmed a €3.1 cardinal concern to prolong the beingness of its combustion cars, including caller range-topping versions of the adjacent 718 Boxster and Cayman. It besides shelved plans to motorboat its ‘K1’ flagship arsenic an EV. Audi, different VW Group brand, had already stepped distant from its all-electric by 2033 extremity past year.

Bentley CEO Frank-Steffen Walliser told Autocar that due to the fact that Bentley shares platforms, drivetrains and components with Porsche and Audi, decisions made successful Stuttgart and Ingolstadt straight interaction Crewe.

Walliser confirmed that Bentley volition inactive rotation retired a caller plug-in hybrid oregon electrical exemplary each twelvemonth from 2026, starting with its archetypal EV, described arsenic an municipality SUV. But with Porsche and Audi continuing to make ICE technology, Bentley present has the flexibility to support pure-petrol versions of its halfway models for longer. That means successors to the Bentayga, Continental GT and Flying Spur volition stay disposable with combustion engines, thing peculiarly important for customers successful regions specified arsenic the Middle East and North America. Initially, those models were lone acceptable to travel with hybrid oregon electrical powertrains.

Explaining the shift, Walliser pointed to a slowdown successful request for luxury EVs. He said customers aren’t yet acceptable to determination wholly to electrical power, and that Bentley needs to align its strategy with what buyers really want. He stressed that electrification remains the brand’s eventual objective, but it indispensable beryllium done astatine a gait customers are comfy with.

At the aforesaid time, Bentley’s concern successful its Crewe tract continues, with enactment underway connected a caller EV assembly line, overgarment store and plan centre. The institution had already delayed its people to spell afloat electrical from 2030 to 2035, citing weaker luxury EV demand. With the Volkswagen Group present committing billions to widen the lifespan of combustion engines, Bentley’s revised attack looks firmly backed astatine the top.

The station Bentley Reverses EV-Only Plan with Petrol Successors for Core Models appeared archetypal connected Zero2Turbo.