BENTLEY OFF TO A ‘FLYER’
The UK’s famous luxury car company is banking on an eco-friendly, all electric future by launching a host of new models
MOVIe stars and moguls moseying through sunny Los Angeles this week may have spotted a new luxury Bentley Flying Spur in traditional British racing green. It’s just one colourful shade among many on show to the shoppers on Rodeo Drive and down in Santa Barbara as Bentley launches the new car in California.
Green is arguably the most significant new colour from the UK luxury car-maker, which builds the sporty limousines some 5,000 miles away in wintry Crewe.
And, the Flying Spur Hybrid in question is also ‘green’ in intent.
It is a petrol-electric plug-in hybrid that marks an important early step in the carmaker’s drive towards electrification — and a fully electric line-up within the decade.
After celebrating record sales in 2021, Bentley is powering into 2022 with its green agenda, including an imminent announcement of a multi-million pound investment to accelerate its ambitious zero-emissions plans at the Crewe factory, which already employs 4,000.
FORGING AHEAD
BeNTLeY MOTORS was founded in 1919 by english engineer Walter Owen ‘WO’ Bentley, whose motto was: ‘To build a good car, a fast car, the best in class.’ The firm established a strong racing pedigree boosted by the ‘Bentley Boys’ of the 1920s led by Woolf Barnato, a triple winner of the Le Mans 24-hour endurance race.
After a bidding war with rival BMW in 1998, Germany’s Volkswagen Group struck a deal to take over Bentley from then owners Vickers, achieving sole control from 2003 and retaining the Crewe factory.
Now, as part of its ambitious ‘Beyond100’ strategy, Bentley aims to see its entire range offering an electrified hybrid option by 2024, with the first fully electric car launched in 2025, exclusively plug-in hybrid or battery electric vehicles by 2026, and solely pure-electric battery vehicles by 2030, when the Government outlaws new petrol and diesel vehicle sales.
Next into the showrooms is the
Flying Spur Hybrid, which was unveiled last summer at the environmentally friendly Macallan distillery, on Speyside in the Highlands, with which the company has established a partnership.
Costing around £170,000, the Flying Spur Hybrid is powered by a 2.9-litre V6 petrol engine combined with an advanced electric motor to deliver a total of 544 horsepower. This propels the car from rest to 60mph in 4.1 seconds up to a top speed of 177mph.
It has an electric-only range of 25 miles. The electric-motor is powered by a 14.1 kWh lithium ion battery that can be fully charged in two and a half hours.
It is Bentley’s second hybrid, following the Bentayga Hybrid SUV, which it exceeds in power by 95 horsepower.
GREEN CREDENTIALS
A HINT at Bentley’s electrified future was given during the firm’s 2019 centenary celebrations with the reveal of the all-electric eXP 100 GT concept car, which used green materials including a leather-like textile upholstery made from a by-product of wine-making.
Wider green moves are afoot as Bentley continues to evolve from the world’s largest producer of 12-cylinder petrol engines into a company that produces no internal combustion engines within a decade.
Since 2018, Bentley’s factory in
Crewe has been certified carbon neutral by the Carbon Trust. There’s a water recycling system in the paint shop, local tree planting, 30,000 solar panels and renewableonly electricity sources.
And business is booming. Earlier this month Bentley announced record sales of 14,659 cars worldwide in 2021 — an increase of 31 per cent on its previous record year in 2020.
Bentley highlighted ‘unprecedented’ demand for its petrol-electric hybrid models — spearheaded by the Bentayga SUV priced from £157,800 and the new Flying Spur limousine from £164,000.
KEEPING ON
BoSSES say the results are a testament to the workforce and to measures taken to continue production despite Covid, logistical issues, global shortages of key computer chips and increasing demand for hybridised models.
Boosted by its hybrid option, the Bentayga SUV was the biggest seller, achieving a 40 per cent share of sales while the Continental GT luxury grand tourer (from £170,000) accounted for 33 per cent. In october, Bentley announced record third quarter operating profits of 275million euros (£229million), putting it on course for a record full year.
Bentley Motors chairman and chief executive Adrian Hallmark said: ‘The original Bentley boys were pioneers and leaders. Now, as we look Beyond100, we will continue to lead by reinventing the company.’ He has also suggested that hydrogen fuel cells — using the gas combined with oxygen in a chemical reaction to produce electric power, with only water coming out of the exhaust pipe — are a longer term aim.
Now that would really be stepping on the green gas.