Bentley is Considering an All-Electric Baby Bentayga
If you were wondering if the Volkswagen-owned Bentley Motors Limited would be omitted from its parent company’s promise of rampant electrification, it won’t.
Bentley also isn’t too high and mighty to hop onto the compact crossover bandwagon. Executives are saying that the luxury motorcar manufacturer is toying with the notion of producing a small all-electric SUV positioned beneath the $229,100 Bentayga, in stature anyway.
“I can assure you that Bentley — on the long term view — will not stay with one model only in the SUV lineup,” Bentley CEO Wolfgang Duerheimer said during the press launch of the Continental Supersports. “We have clear indications that a smaller Bentayga as a Bentley SUV would find great acceptance.”
A utomotive News quoted Rolf Frech, Bentley’s board member on engineering, as stating “If you are looking for such a car then we are looking at the combination with the possibilities to go full electric. It only makes sense if you get really new customers into the brand.”
Bentley already promised an eventual plug-in hybrid option for each of its models, starting with the Bentayga SUV and ending with the Flying Spur. The early models will use a V6 PHEV powertrain borrowed from VW capable of at least 500 hp, but the company has said it also wants to use a hybridized V8 — particularly for the North American market.
Considering Volkswagen has promised to launch over two-dozen electric cars by 2025, Bentley’s move toward additional electrification isn’t completely out of left field. Other VW sub-brands are working on all-electric vehicles as well. Lamborghini has plans to build a plug-in model of the upcoming Urus crossover, Audi is working on an e-tron SUV line, Porsche has said it would build the E Mission, and there have been sightings of an all-electric Cayenne prototype.
Frech said the Bentley EV wouldn’t show up until 2020, just after those vehicles are scheduled to arrive.
[Image: Bentley Motors Limited]
A staunch consumer advocate tracking industry trends and regulation. Before joining TTAC, Matt spent a decade working for marketing and research firms based in NYC. Clients included several of the world’s largest automakers, global tire brands, and aftermarket part suppliers. Dissatisfied with the corporate world and resentful of having to wear suits everyday, he pivoted to writing about cars. Since then, that man has become an ardent supporter of the right-to-repair movement, been interviewed on the auto industry by national radio broadcasts, driven more rental cars than anyone ever should, participated in amateur rallying events, and received the requisite minimum training as sanctioned by the SCCA. Handy with a wrench, Matt grew up surrounded by Detroit auto workers and managed to get a pizza delivery job before he was legally eligible. He later found himself driving box trucks through Manhattan, guaranteeing future sympathy for actual truckers. He continues to conduct research pertaining to the automotive sector as an independent contractor and has since moved back to his native Michigan, closer to where the cars are born. A contrarian, Matt claims to prefer understeer — stating that front and all-wheel drive vehicles cater best to his driving style.
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Is Bentayga a type 4 redux from VW with a fatter margin?
You know, we shiftless people who drive low cost appliances will have to pay more to make up for all the money being wasted on electric vehicles. We're awash in oil. Knock off this foolishness and put the money into new V-8 engineering. Even the Dart had a 318 and Torqueflite!