Bentley Motors Ltd. is delaying a plan to offer only fully electric vehicles by 2030 as EV sales continue to disappoint projections across the industry.
It will extend the target for its “Beyond100” business strategy—now called “Beyond100+”—by five years to 2035, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Frank-Steffen Walliser told reporters during a video conference Thursday.
“We all know the automotive market looks different,” said Walliser, the former Porsche motorsport guru who joined Bentley July 1. “Legislation for sure is driving electrification. We have to be honest there’s not a lot of demand—customers are kind of careful in considering something like that.”
Walliser confirmed that the company remains on track to reveal its first fully electric vehicle in 2026. A compact SUV that is smaller than the existing Bentayga, it will be the first of Bentley’s plan to introduce a new plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) or new battery electric vehicle (BEV) every year over the next decade.
“We want to attract new customers,” Walliser said of the battery-powered compact SUV. “It’s not a replacement, it’s an additional car.”
In September, the German executive had already described Bentley’s transition to EVs as “a moving target” and said the company would focus on a mix of hybrid- and combustion-engine vehicles like the $300,000 Bentley Continental GT Speed for the foreseeable future.
Bentley will produce some form of hybrid- or combustion engine vehicle as long as the customer and the market demands it, he reconfirmed Thursday, noting that even though it discontinued its W-12 combustion engine earlier this year, Bentley will offer a new pure-combustion variant of the Bentayga next year.
