Half a year ago, Bentley announced their plans to offer only BEVs and PHEVs from 2026 and focus exclusively on all-electric cars from 2030. Now Bentley CEO Adrian Hallmark revealed more details about the first BEV model in an interview. <\/p>\n
As Hallmark hinted to CAR Magazine<\/em>, Bentley’s first battery-electric vehicle will probably be an SUV based on the Artemis platform developed by Audi and is to be launched on the market in 2025. Being a subsidiary of Volkswagen certainly helped with the technical expertise; however, the task ahead for Bentley remains large, as Hallmark had underlined when the market plans were revealed<\/a>: “a paradigm shift throughout our business, with credibility, authenticity, and integrity. Within a decade, Bentley will transform from a 100-year-old luxury car company to a new, sustainable, wholly ethical role model for luxury.”<\/p>\n While the Artemis platform is lagging slightly behind schedule<\/a>, this is far more positive news for the technology compared to a few months ago, when Volkswagen was looking at streamlining its development<\/a> processes to develop EV technology more quickly, the choice for Artemis may also have had something to do with how far along the project is, as Hallmark comments: “With our current cars, we had to get into the engineering largely after they [the platforms] had been done. The difference now is that with Artemis, we’re right in there at the beginning, helping define it.” This does not mean that Bentley is looking to become a British Audi clone, as Hallmark adds that technologies would be sourced from several locations in the Group: “Looking forward to electrification, we’re going to have closer synergies with Audi. But we will continue to have strong relationships with both brands [Audi and Porsche], and we see this as an opportunity, not a risk.”<\/p>\n