Bentley wants to be the first luxury carmaker to become fully carbon-neutral, and their first fully electric vehicle will be here in around 5 years. Until then things can be done from a design standpoint, giving EV battery technology time to improve.
The timeline makes sense, as new battery technology currently being developed for EVs is expected to be ready within the next 5 years. Bentley CEO Adrian Hallmark recently spoke to Top Gear about the company’s plans:
We will launch our first battery-electric vehicle in the middle of the 2020s because we anticipate in five years the increase in power density – or the introduction of solid-state batteries – will allow a 30 percent-plus improvement in performance. We don’t want to build small cars, we want to build Bentleys. We build definitive grand tourers so we need to do more than 100 miles on a charge. People have got to get used to relying on electric cars, and 300 miles will do it.
Bentley plans on making a hybrid-electric version of every model by 2023 leading up to the release of a fully electric version around 2025. “By 2025/26, with the known road map, we’ll be able to build a proper Bentley EV. The right wheelbase, [the] right amount of occupants, the right size and shape,” said Hallmark.
The company unveiled the EXP 100 GT concept electric vehicle last year as a glimpse into the future. Hallmark said the optimum size and shape would be something similar to the Jaguar I-Pace, making it large enough to fit a battery with at least 300 miles of range.
The current price of batteries is what makes most EVs so expensive, but the cost of a Bentley is already high, as Hallmark points out: “Batteries are six times the price of an engine, and an engine is 20 percent the cost of a car. Multiply 20 into 120 percent and the car has doubled in cost.”
Bentley is a subsidiary of the Volkswagen Group, which has invested $100 million into California-based company QuantumScape for the development of solid-state batteries. Volkswagen and QuantumScape will work together to have these batteries ready and scalable at an industrial level by 2025.
“Once solid-state batteries can be productionized, then the growth in capability will become exponential,” said Hallmark. “Of course, they will initially be at the top end of the price scale, but which carmaker within the [Volkswagen] Group is best placed with customers to carry that cost? I very much hope that Bentley can be at the vanguard of that and it seems logical that we should be.”
Bentley has always put a premium on offering customers the best money can buy. Now they will add sustainability to that list as well.
Yes, one goal is to lead in electrification in the luxury segment, but we also feel that sustainability can be about far more than just electrification. Our customers are happy to pay a premium if they can buy a car that is truly carbon-neutral, and that is now a core mission of the company.
