Bentley scales down electric program and announces new EV

Bentley’s electric plans are being shelved a bit. But at the same time, the brand does announce a brand new EV.

A few years ago, Bentley announced the “Beyond 100” plan. The idea was pretty simple: by the end of the decade, Bentley should be fully electric. Sounds clear enough, and with this much preparation, it should easily succeed, right? But like Volvo and BMW, Bentley has now backtracked on that idea. The plan has been renamed “Beyond 100+,” and for the foreseeable future, Bentley will still continue to release combustion-engine cars.

“We all know that the level of purchase of EVs is very different now than in 2019,” says CEO Frank Walliser. “But I do see it as a dip now. Demand will definitely come back, but it will go at different speeds per country. There are new customers who want a more modern Bentley. The goal of EVs is obviously to get new customers, but we also think we can win over existing customers. We hope that in 2026 and 2027 there will be a new wave of electric vehicles.”

That doesn’t mean Bentley is stopping plans for electric cars altogether. The brand plans to release a new EV or hybrid every year from 2026 through 2035. That should start with Bentley’s first all-electric car, which will hit the market in 2026. According to Walliser, it will be a city SUV, slightly smaller than the Bentayga that Bentley already sells.

Not much is known about this EV yet, except that it will likely have around 600 horsepower. For the electric architecture, it will draw on the resources of the Volkswagen Group, of which Bentley is also part. Walliser won’t release anything else about that, except that it will be “incredibly good.” The range, he says, will be “sufficient.”

So in the meantime, Bentley does continue to develop combustion engines for their hybrid models. The first of these is the aforementioned Bentayga, which will get a brand new powertrain sometime next year. This powertrain is part of Bentley’s plan for “a special Bentley powered by a non-PHEV internal combustion engine.”