Bentley Is The Latest Manufacturer To Delay Its EV-Only Plans
This is starting to sound a bit familiar. Three years on from announcing that it planned to axe all of its internal combustion-powered cars by 2030, Bentley is the latest manufacturer to admit that that target may have been a little ambitious.
In a recent conference call, the British manufacturerâs chief executive officer Adrian Hallmark told journalists that the deadline may slip by a year or two, as reported by Road & Track. This isnât quite as dramatic a U-turn as Mercedes-Benz, which originally gave the same 2030 deadline before backtracking on that to the extent that it now forecasts just half of its sales will be electric by then. Bentley, on the other hand, is still eyeing up an all-electric lineup by the early 2030s. Auto Express reports that technical issues are the reason for the slight delay.
Bentley Flying Spur Hybrid – charging
Bentley has a further ambition that its range will be exclusively hybrid by 2026. Currently, its Bentayga SUV and Flying Spur saloon are both offered as V6 plug-in hybrids, while the Continental GT remains exclusively combustion-powered for now.
Thatâll change later this year when, according to Auto Express, itâll launch âhigh-performanceâ hybrid versions of both the Continental and Flying Spur. These models will supersede the current range-topping versions powered by the companyâs long-serving 6.0-litre twin-turbo W12, which will end production in April 2024.
Bentley Continental GT – front
The new versions are likely to share a powertrain with the Porsche Panamera Turbo e-Hybrid, with which they also share the VW Groupâs MSB platform. In its newest form, that car mates a 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 with a 140kW electric motor for a combined output of 671bhp, with a more powerful Turbo S version likely to follow.
The Bentayga, which sits on different chassis architecture, wonât receive the same powertrain, with the V6 remaining the sole hybrid option.
Bentley Bentayga Hybrid – rear
Bentley isnât the first manufacturer to row back on its original all-electric deadline, and it probably wonât be the last: as EV take-up hasnât been as rapid as some manufacturers predicted, and as various governments reconsider their plans to ban internal combustion, there are surely other manufacturers taking long, hard looks at the deadlines they originally set themselves to bin petrol and diesel.
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