All Future Bentleys Will Offer Plug-in Hybrid Option

Bentley says plug-in hybrid drivetrains make the most sense for its elite-class customer base – enough to offer them as an option for all its ultra-luxury vehicles.

Speaking last week at Automotive News World Congress, held in Detroit in conjunction with the auto show, Bentley CEO Wolfgang Durheimer said that all Bentley models will have a PHEV variant. That will be added as an option beginning in 2018, he said.

A lot of owners around the world have a chauffeur driving them around in their Bentley. The high-end luxury automaker doesn’t see all-electric vehicles making any sense as an alternative powertrain offering.

Corporate executives will want their drivers to get them out of the city to their mansion in the countryside without having to stop for a charge, for example. It’s much more viable to do that with a long-range plug-in hybrid running off of battery power and an internal combustion engine, Durheimer said, versus a limited-range battery electric vehicle.

For Durheimer, PHEVs are not merely a “transitional technology” needed on a temporary basis until all-electric systems improve. It’s really presents a win-win scenario, he said.

“PHEV sometimes is mentioned as a transitional technology — it will be out of our way pretty soon,” Bentley told the crowd. “From my point of view, plug-in hybrid technology provides the best of two worlds.”

That “best of two worlds” approach will be met first by easily complying with the restrictions several cities around the world are placing on vehicle emissions. Operating in electric-only mode in a PHEV Bentley could clear the hurdle being placed on vehicles.

The second advantage of adopting PHEVs is taking away range anxiety for chauffeurs and their important clients riding in the back seat. That option isn’t there yet for all-electric vehicles.

First in line for Bentley PHEVs will be the recently launched Bentayga crossover receiving a PHEV drivetrain sometime in 2018. Buyers will have the option of the PHEV variant or a Bentayga powered by a twin-turbo W-12 engine, and a V-8 turbo diesel model not available in the U.S.

The chief executive revealed to Automotive News, after his speech, that the next Bentley after the Bentayga to come out with the PHEV option will be the next-generation Continental GT. That will take place after the initial “supersports” car Continental GT is launched with a W-12 internal combustion engine, and before the GT version debuts with a V-8 engine.

The plug-in hybrid version of the GT will have a V-6 engine provided by Volkswagen, and electric motors, battery systems, plug-in hybrid controllers, and wiring systems available to VW divisions, Durheimer said.

Bentley is one of parent company VW’s luxury divisions, in league with Audi, Bugatti, Lamborghini, and Porsche.

The Bentley GT engine’s power output is expected to match that of the V-8; the current Continental GT has a V-8 engine with 500 horsepower.

Future versions of the Flying Spur sedan and the Mulsanne sedan will also get PHEV versions, Durheimer said.

[source: Automotive News]

This article first appeared on hybridcars.com

The post All Future Bentleys Will Offer Plug-in Hybrid Option appeared first on VWVortex.

from VWVortex http://ift.tt/2jkxlFg
via IFTTT

Project SportWagen: Going Stage 2 with APR

When we last left you, the humble little SportWagen was fresh from the development process with our friends at AWE Tuning, sporting a new downpipe, exhaust and intake, allowing things to breathe a bit easier. The car sounded great, but there was no getting around the fact that our wagon was still quite, well, slow. While we realize that nothing we do to the Golf SportWagen at this point will make it a race car, we still felt compelled to do something . To put it bluntly, we had a fever, and the only cure was more power. Flash forward a few hours, and we found ourselves at Waterfest, staring down APR’s palatial spread and the numerous tuned vehicles surrounding it. Earlier in the year, APR had hinted to us that their 1.8 TSI files would be quite impressive, and based on what they were able to do with the 2.0 TSI found in the new GTI and our time in their Golf R, we knew it’d be worth the wait. So with this in mind, we lined our G...

Project Golf SportWagen- Intro

I’ve never really been one for SUVs and crossovers. The current offerings aren’t the body-on-frame, go-anywhere specialty tools I remember from my youth, and what they lack in capability, they also lack in on-road performance. The current crop isn’t terribly good at handling or being efficient, which in my opinion are major components of our ideal driving experience. So when it comes to space or utility, I usually look for something of the wagon variety- and it seems that I’m not alone. We hit quite a few shows around the east coast each summer, and we see modified Jetta SportWagens at nearly every event. Even amongst common consumers, these cars are highly sought-after. They don’t depreciate much, making even early Mk 5 2.5 versions expensive in comparison to other Jettas or Golfs of the same vintage. This year, Volkswagen launched their latest SportWagen, which is now billed as a Golf. In many ways, this latest SportWagen is the best yet and it has certai...

Volkswagen Group Records Best Ever First-Half-of-Year Sales

With 5.5 million vehicles in customer hands after the first six months of 2018, the Volkswagen Group is seeing the best performance of its history. Group deliveries increased significantly in all core regions,” said Fred Kappler, head of sales for the Group. “Our core brands recorded strong growth in the first half year.” For the year-to-date, all of Volkswagen’s brands had sales bumps. MAN, SEAT, and Skoda led the sales charge with performances 24%, 17% and 11% better than the previous year. The big sellers, too, had strong sales periods, with Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles, Audi, and Volkswagen sales rising 3.5%, 4.5% and 6.3% respectively. That last figure is particularly good new for the board, since Volkswagen alone sold more than 3 million vehicles in the first half of 2018. As Kappler stated, the numbers are equally good when you break sales down by region. Brazil and Russia were the most improved markets (22% and 20%, respectively), while strong sales in Europe and China (u...

Vorderman Volkswagen

Search This Blog