Bentley will come in 2025 with its first purely electric model, that was already known. Now the CEO of the brand is revealing more details.
Bentley has long been a symbol of large cars with ditto engines. For example, anyone who is currently still in the market for a twelve-cylinder, will almost automatically end up with that brand. For those people, there will be a big downer from 2025, since Bentley made it clear in November that it will subtly guide the combustion engine towards the exit in the second half of this year. In 2025 it will even come with a purely electric model. Those who think that is still going too far can also turn to Bentley for plug-in hybrids until 2030.
Initially it seemed logical that Bentley turned to Porsche for the EV and Audi for the J1 platform of the Taycan and the E-tron GT, although the PPE platform was also an option. The light is all a bit more complex than that, it now appears. CEO Adrian Hallmark leaves in conversation with Car Magazine know that Bentley is at the development table at Audi for ‘Project Artemis’. Under this heading, Audi is working on a completely new electric flagship according to – as far as is known – a completely new architecture. According to Audi, this will be a ‘very efficient EV’ and the cream of the crop when it comes to electric and autonomous driving. “With our current cars, we had to work with them when they (Audi, ed.) Were already finished. The difference is that with Artemis we are right there from the start and work on it,” said Hallmark.
So don’t expect – disrespectfully – an Audi E-tron GT with a different carriage from Bentley’s first EV. Not surprisingly, Hallmark does not want to release details yet, although his words indicate that there is a good chance that it will be an SUV. “If you don’t do SUVs, you’re nowhere,” said the CEO. Who knows, maybe the 2019 EXP 100 GT concept car pictured will get a production follow-up at a later stage. Interesting detail: Hallmark is not afraid that Bentley will lose a lot of business when it starts with electric cars. He states that 39 percent of current Bentley owners would like to switch to an electric car.