After dipping its toes in crossover waters with the Bentayga more than 4 years ago, Bentley is now looking at the future of motoring.
Through the voice of CEO Adrian Hallmark, the crew from Crewe spoke to TopGear about their zero-emission ambitions at the cancelled 2020 Geneva Motor Show.
Bentley’s head honcho confirmed that they will make an electric car, and it will arrive on the market in mid-2020s. Why so late, when nearly every major automaker has already started experimenting with zero emissions mobility? Because of the high cost of batteries, which would significantly affect the price of the car, even a Bentley.
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“Batteries are six times the price of an engine, and an engine is 20 percent the cost of a car”, said Hallmark. Multiply 20 into 120 percent and the car has doubled in cost. EVs are very expensive today because batteries are expensive.” By their estimates, batteries will become more affordable and smaller in 5-6 years, and that’s when they’ll take on the task of building a “proper EV”, with “the right wheelbase, right amount of occupants, the right size and shape”.
The first production EV could bear the Mulliner moniker, and surprisingly, it might have a low range but big price tag. Hallmark revealed that “we’ve been asked if we could ‘build a car exactly like an R-Type Continental that’s also fully electric, and I don’t care if it’s got 100 miles (160 km) range, thank you very much’. The answer is ‘yes, we could’. Do we really want to? We haven’t answered that yet.”
A fully electric Bentley has already been previewed last year, via the EXP 100 GT Concept. The all-quiet GT packs four electric motors for a total system output of 1,340 HP and 1,100 lb-ft (1,491 Nm) of torque, and a 0-60 mph (0-96 km/h) in under 2.5 seconds. At 186 mph (300 km/h), top speed is worthy of the class, and with the new battery tech, it’s expected to be charged to 80 percent in just 15 minutes, and have a range of 435 miles (700 km), with a weight of 4,200 lbs (1,900 kg).
On a different note, the British brand has become carbon neutral in their factory operations and wants to become the first in the VW Group and the luxury class to become fully carbon neutral, according to Hallmark.
“As a Group we’re fully committed to the 2040 Paris climate accord and we’re committing tens of billions towards it as a group. We’re part of the Group, but we want to be the first there. We’re small, we don’t use a lot of resources. So for us to decarbonize from an organizational or industrial perspective is a way smaller challenge.”
