Bentley’s first all-electric vehicle is slowly coming to life and beyond featuring an advanced powertrain, it will also include a hands-off autonomous driving function using technology from other VW Group vehicles.
While recently speaking about the car, Bentley chief executive Adrian Hallmark revealed that it will feature the SuperVision technology suite developed by Mobileye. This system allows for Level 3 and hands-off driving on motorways and features no less than 11 cameras, crowd-sourced high-definition maps, and the Mobileye EyeQ5 chip. The Porsche e-Macan will also feature the same system.
Hallmark has told Autocar that the first Bentley EV will be underpinned by the Performance Platform Electric (PPE) architecture developed by Audi and Porsche. The chief executive of the Volkswagen Group, Oliver Blume, has previously said this platform will support outputs of up to 939 hp and it’s understood that the Bentley could come close to this figure. It is not yet clear if it will feature two, three, or four electric motors, nor is it known how large the battery pack will be.
Read: VW’s Next-Gen EV Platform Will Offer Up To 1,700 HP In 2026
We also know that the Bentley EV will use the VW Group’s 1.2 software. The slow development of this new technology suite has already led to delays of the Porsche Macan EV and the Audi Q6 e-tron. Autocar reports that the team behind the new software is being led by the former head of manufacturing for Bentley, Peter Bosch.
Given the popularity of the electric Rolls-Royce Spectre, it’s likely that Bentley customers will also respond positively to the brand’s first EV. Not only is it shaping up to have the most advanced technology suite of any Bentley model but it may also prove to be the quickest, quietest, and most comfortable.
It won’t be the only EV that Bentley will introduce this decade. In fact, the British firm has confirmed that it will launch four other EVs by 2030 as it shifts to being an electric-only brand.
