Bentley has pushed again manufacturing of its first electrical automotive to 2026 from 2025, CEO Adrian Hallmark mentioned.
Hallmark denied studies that software program delays had been answerable for the slip in timing for the automotive, which is a part of Audi’s Artemis undertaking.
The automotive – anticipated to be a coupe — will nonetheless be revealed in 2025 as deliberate, Hallmark mentioned. The delay is a “matter of months,” he informed Automotive News Europe.
He gave no purpose for the schedule change. Volkswagen Group, which owns Audi and Bentley, is working to a decent timetable to launch vehicles on the Scalable Systems Platform (SSP) electrical structure that can underpin vehicles within the Artemis undertaking.
Audi’s first automotive from the undertaking has been delayed to the tip of 2026, sources informed Automotive News Europe sister publication Automobilwoche.
Bentley mentioned in November 2020 that it will drop inner combustion engines from its vehicles by 2030 and swap its complete mannequin vary to full-electric autos. By 2026, the model will solely provide plug-in hybrid and full-electric fashions. Currently two electrified fashions are supplied, the Flying Spur and Bentayga plug-in hybrids.
Bentley plans to spend 2.5 billion kilos ($3 billion) to affect its vary and overhaul its manufacturing facility in Crewe, England.
Hallmark mentioned the cash to pay for the transformation got here from Bentley itself after the model reversed years of weak monetary outcomes to submit report earnings of $395 million in 2021 on deliveries of 14,659 vehicles.
Bentley mentioned first quarter earnings this yr had been up 162 % to $172 million. VW Group first-half outcomes will probably be introduced on Thursday.
The new EV will grow to be the model’s flagship automotive when it arrives, with one variant costing greater than 250,000 euros ($254,000), Hallmark informed Automotive News Europe in an interview earlier this yr. He promised the automotive would provide “effortless overtaking performance from a huge amount of torque on demand.”
The greater value will not be a results of the price of the battery, Hallmark mentioned. “The 12-cylinder engine is about 10 times the price of the average premium car engine, and the average battery is less than our 12-cylinder engine. I can’t wait for batteries, they’re cheap in relative terms,” he mentioned.
Source: www.autonews.com