Bentley’s first full-electric car will be a tall-riding sedan

KUALA LUMPUR: Bentley, now and again, has made clear that it aims to introduce a full electric car by 2025; however, it’s not doing so just for the sake of it. As per reports from Autocar, the Bentley EV will anchor the company as a global leader in sustainable car tech and manufacturing.

Adrian Hallmark, Bentley CEO, told Autocar that the company has already designed a concept on the lines of the Jaguar I-Pace, but more extreme in other ways. The EV would be a high-riding sedan and not a full-blown SUV, which Bentley says is mostly inefficient when it comes to aerodynamics, which in turn, reduces the range of the EV.

In his statement, Hallmark said, “If we are to launch an electric car in the mid-2020s, then it either needs to be smaller than today’s cars or the same size but not as upright, and smaller isn’t an appealing solution as it implies a lower price segment. The prediction is battery technology will have moved forward again by that date and that will put us at the edge of what we think we need to give customers – 300 to 350 miles (480 to 560 km), or enough to cruise at 65 mph (105 km/h) average for five hours,”

On the battery front, Bentley said that the next-gen energy storage units would come from solid-state batteries. However, this technology will only come to attainment at the end of the decade. That said, the 2025 Bentley EV is expected to use an advanced version of lithium-ion cells.

Hallmark said the company has very little to fear from an electric future. In fact, many of the aspects of electrification define Bentley. Today in a GT, one can hit 333 kmph, but that doesn’t mean many of the company’s customers drive around at that speed often, if at all. Also, Bentley is not a brand that, in any way, is defined to offer hypercar or supercar performance.

He went on to say that what customers will enjoy every time they go out in a Bentley is - super-refinement, leisurely pace, and total comfort. And electrification will only enhance the experience for the customers; the trade-off here is about 12 cylinders for 2k or so electrical cells.

Going forward, Hallmark only hopes that the parent company, Volkswagen Group, will grant Bentley first access to any significant electrical or battery architecture breakthrough. As for the hallowed W12 engine, it would be eventually phased out in a customer-orientated and progressive manner.

Also Read: Bentley planning a new ultra-luxury SUV, likely to be hybrid model