Bentley has updated its plans for an all-electric future, and says it will continue to produce hybrid cars until at least 2035 – five years beyond what it had originally planned.
Despite the half-decade delay in switching away from petrol, Bentley says its first all-electric car is due to be revealed in 2026 and, of course, it will be a luxury SUV.
Instead of being a direct replacement to anything already on sale, such as the Bentley Bentayga SUV, the company says its first EV will “create an entirely new segment, the world’s first true luxury urban SUV.”
Bentley continued: “This model, designed, developed and to be produced at its headquarters in Crewe, will be the first of a new PHEV or BEV model to be launched every year over the next decade”.
In other words, between 2026 and 2035, Bentley plans to launch a new car every year, and all of those vehicles will either be hybrids or fully-electric.
Four of those cars are expected to be new generations of the pre-existing Bentayga, Continental GT and GTS, and Flying Spur, leaving room for the new electric SUV, plus five more new car models. Even with the deadline shift from 2030 to 2035, that appears to be a massive undertaking for the British brand.
The new plan is called Beyond100+. Previously it was just ‘Beyond100’, which was announced in 2019 to mark Bentley’s 100th birthday with a plan for the next 100 years.
Back to the ‘Luxury Urban SV’, and we expect the first electric Bentley to become the company’s new flagship vehicle. Being described as “urban” suggests that, while this is likely to be a high-riding vehicle, it won’t be something to take off-road, unlike the first electric Range Rover, which is due out soon. A sketch published by Bentley, pictured above, suggests the car will have a similar profile to the Bentayga SUV.
