Bentley Motors has said that it will continue to sell fossil fuel cars until 2035 – five years later than previously planned – as the luxury carmaker announced its first electric car will be an SUV.
The British brand said that it will reveal its electric “urban SUV” in 2026, in an update to its strategy on Thursday.
Bentley, which is owned by Germany’s Volkswagen, is the latest carmaker to delay the shift from polluting petrol and diesel to electric-only propulsion, as growth in sales of electric cars has slowed in some key markets. Toyota, Volvo and Ford have also changed plans for electric models in response to a slower shift.
Luxury carmakers such as Bentley are insulated from some of the difficulties faced by mass-market producers whose customers have been affected by higher interest rates and inflation. Bentley cars start at about £170,000, and can cost up to £1.7m for one-off vehicles built to be billionaire showstoppers.
Yet even luxury companies believe that some buyers are put off from buying electric cars because of poor charging infrastructure, particularly outside Europe, China and the US.
Bentley had already revealed its plans to continue to produce plug-in hybrid cars, which combine a petrol engine and a small battery that can be recharged by cable, after 2030. That decision was taken by Bentley’s former boss Adrian Hallmark, who has since shifted to lead another British brand, Aston Martin.
Frank-Steffen Walliser, who joined Bentley as chief executive in July, said that the company was “maintaining our aim of a decarbonised future”.
He said the company needed to “adapt to today’s economic, market and legislative environment to initiate a major transformative phase for tomorrow”. The company is now aiming to offer “only fully electric cars from 2035”, he added.
However, the exact date of the last petrol car to roll off Bentley’s factory line is likely to depend on demand across the world.
The first electric model will be smaller than Bentley’s only SUV, the enormous Bentayga. That car was only launched in 2015 after decades of focus on saloons that can be driven by a chauffeur, or grand touring coupés.
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The cars will all be made in Crewe, Cheshire, where Bentley employs 4,000 people. Battery cars offer some distinct advantages to luxury carmakers: electric motors make very little noise compared with the contained explosions of internal combustion, and they offer smooth and rapid acceleration.
It is likely that Bentley would – at least at first – be reliant on imported batteries because of relatively slow progress in building a British battery factory.
