Bentley’s First Electric Model Will Not Be A Sports Car, Says CEO

As you might have heard already, Bentley is planning to launch a full electric model in the near future but it will only do so when battery tech improves, said the company’s CEO Adrian Hallmark.

Hallmark believes that battery cell power density needs to be increased in order to be used on a super luxury Bentley.

“The problem is when you get to our segment with the size of our vehicles and the frontal area we push through, current battery power density limits the size of the car you can offer with credible driving range,” Hallmark said to Automotive News.

Bentley’s CEO expects battery technology to reach an acceptable level of performance between 2023 and 2025. “There is nothing industrialized in the supply chain before then,” he added.

Hallmark thinks that an all-electric Bentley will attract a broad portion of the very rich customers who currently don’t buy one of the high-end luxury cars from any brand. “An electric vehicle is even more appealing to them than to our customers,” he said.

Despite showing the electric EXP 12 Speed 6e at the 2017 Geneva Motor Show, Bentley’s first battery electric model will not be a sports car, Hallmark added.

We have talked about sports cars in the past, but I don’t believe we need sports cars,” he said. “Within the Volkswagen Group, there are enough sports cars,” he added.

However, Hallmark didn’t comment on what body style Bentley’s first EV will adopt, but he said that it would “redefine grand touring” with a long driving range.”When we build an electric car it will be a Bentley first and foremost, and it will be an electric Bentley second,” he said.

Bentley will most likely use the Premium Platform Electric (PPE), a modular architecture that’s currently under development by Porsche and Audi, as the base of its first EV. The first PPE-based models of the VW Group are expected to be launched in 2021.

Audi has already revealed that the PPE allows three body styles, including an SUV and a luxury sedan. However, the VW Group hasn’t decided yet on whether Bentley can borrow the platform, according to the group’s finance chief Frank Witter.

2017 Bentley EXP12 Speed6e pictured