Bentley’s land yacht to become a PHEV
You’d expect 99.9 per cent of Bentley Bentayga owners wouldn’t give a stuff about a) the environment or b) how much fuel they’re using. But someone within the wider Volkswagen AG empire has decreed they do — or should — because a plug-in hybrid Bentayga SUV is on the way.
It’s an easy stretch though, when you consider how vast the German brand’s parts bin is. The plug-in Bentayga will probably use the E-Hybrid system from the Porsche Cayenne and Panamera, which are getting electrified in 2019.
It’s inevitable, isn’t it? Every carmaker is after some of that EV goodwill. Despite pinpointing Bentley’s big bruiser for the plugin treatment seeming a little incongruous at first, when you consider that the Continental GT will eventually be offered with the option of a hybrid engine and that a dedicated stand-alone EV is also expected from Bentley in the intermediate future, it all points to a bigger masterplan.
The rationale for these decisions that the world’s carmakers have adhered to is obvious. It doesn’t matter how gargantuan your land yacht is, or whether the sort of cigar-puffing titan of industry that drives it cares either way; you need to electrify, or die.
We can assume only the Bentayga PHEV will have a better class of plug. And a walnut inlaid charge cable cabinet in the boot.