Skip to main content

Bentley is Considering an All-Electric Baby Bentayga

If you were wondering if the Volkswagen-owned Bentley Motors Limited would be omitted from its parent company’s promise of rampant electrification, it won’t.

Bentley also isn’t too high and mighty to hop onto the compact crossover bandwagon. Executives are saying that the luxury motorcar manufacturer is toying with the notion of producing a small all-electric SUV positioned beneath the $229,100 Bentayga, in stature anyway. 

“I can assure you that Bentley — on the long term view — will not stay with one model only in the SUV lineup,” Bentley CEO Wolfgang Duerheimer said during the press launch of the Continental Supersports. “We have clear indications that a smaller Bentayga as a Bentley SUV would find great acceptance.”

Automotive News quoted Rolf Frech, Bentley’s board member on engineering, as stating “If you are looking for such a car then we are looking at the combination with the possibilities to go full electric. It only makes sense if you get really new customers into the brand.”

Bentley already promised an eventual plug-in hybrid option for each of its models, starting with the Bentayga SUV and ending with the Flying Spur. The early models will use a V6 PHEV powertrain borrowed from VW capable of at least 500 hp, but the company has said it also wants to use a hybridized V8 — particularly for the North American market.

Considering Volkswagen has promised to launch over two-dozen electric cars by 2025, Bentley’s move toward additional electrification isn’t completely out of left field. Other VW sub-brands are working on all-electric vehicles as well. Lamborghini has plans to build a plug-in model of the upcoming Urus crossover, Audi is working on an e-tron SUV line, Porsche has said it would build the E Mission, and there have been sightings of an all-electric Cayenne prototype.

Frech said the Bentley EV wouldn’t show up until 2020, just after those vehicles are scheduled to arrive.

This article first appeared on The Truth About Cars

The post Bentley is Considering an All-Electric Baby Bentayga appeared first on VWVortex.



from VWVortex http://ift.tt/2lQz4oI
via IFTTT
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Review: Saying Goodbye to the CC V6

For all its size and its global reach, Volkswagen is still, in many ways, a deeply human company. There was, for instance, the Bugatti Veyron an ego project if ever there was one. Then the purchase of Ducati, a move most called folly. And then there was the Phaeton, the Volkswagen that most folks can’t afford. Not only were these moves all strange, I’m sure that they made VW’s accountants furious. None of them made good business sense, but they were all deeply interesting and they all are evidence of the heart that beats at the center of VW. Among these follies is the CC, a car that everyone agrees is rakishly handsome, but that no one really wanted to buy. The car couldn’t last, but the world is brighter for its having been in it. With the approach debut of the Arteon, it seems like a good time to look back on its sadly departing predecessor. The version I drove, because I live in Canada, is a V6 Wolfsburg Edition, which apparently isn’t available in the States. Nor is the V6, not as...
Post a Comment
Read more

T-Prime Makes World Premiere at Beijing

[ See image gallery at www.vwvortex.com ] The SUV segment is one of the fastest growing segments in the world and Volkswagen is showing the world how to do it. With the new T-Prime Concept GTE that was revealed today, the company is showing off all of the technology you can look for in its coming models. The T-Prime is a full-size hybrid SUV that can go up to 31 miles on a charge and gets 87 mpg. The hybrid power station is good for 375 hp and 516 lb/ft of torque and puts the power down with 4MOTION all wheel drive. It’ll get you up to 60 in six seconds. The concept’s real party piece, though, is its interior, which features exclusively touch, gesture, and voice controls. Everything from the infotainment, to the display, and even the gears are controlled by touch-screen. The T-Prime Concept GTE is bigger than the Touareg, and design elements are likely to find their way into all of their SUVs, of which there will be many. Volkswagen is also announcing that they expect to make an S...
Post a Comment
Read more

Audi Teases the e-tron’s Headlights Ahead of LA Reveal

Audi will unveil its new electric car, the e-tron GT, in just a few short days, but until then, it will do what manufacturers can’t help but do and will tease it mercilessly. The latest teaser images first appeared on Germany’s Bild , and feature some of the EV’s lighting. While the taillights look reasonably familiar, albeit on an interesting, angular surface, the headlights feature a heretofore unseen light shape. The X-shape (or maybe an R-shape, from the right angle) in the middle of the e-tron GT’s headlights set it apart from the rest of the lineup, even the e-tron SUV (whose lights look R8-ish with their angular check-shaped top line.) #Sneak Peek: the #Audi #etron GT concept – stay tuned for the big #world #premiere on November 28. pic.twitter.com/NIg0z6bIwR — AUDI AG (@Audi_Press) November 25, 2018 The long and low sedan will be based on the same platform as the Porsche Taycan, which is said to hit 60 mph in just 3.5 seconds and whose batteries will all be stowed...
Post a Comment
Read more