Bentley plans to invest $3.4 billion over the next 10 years to make its historic Crewe manufacturing plant EV compatible.
Bentley, the U.K. luxury car maker, will spend £2.5 billion ($3.4 billion) over the next 10 years to update its Crewe facility as the company aims to roll out its first electric vehicle in 2025.
The move is part of the 102-year old company’s plan to shift to 100% EV production by 2030.
The company said it will embed an “industry-leading greenfield facility into an… advanced manufacturing facility,” at its historic campus in Crewe, Cheshire, England.
“Securing production of our first BEV in Crewe is a milestone moment for Bentley, and the UK, as we plan for a long-term sustainable future in Crewe,” CEO Adrian Hallmark said.
The Crewe facility will be developed into a what the company calls a “Dream Factory” that will be the brainstem of the Bentley’s future EV platform.
Crowded Luxury Field
Once Bentley, the 14th most expensive luxury vehicle brand in the world, does enter the EV race, it will have to work to gain some traction.
Numerous luxury options are already available in the electric vehicle space with Tesla, the most popular luxury brand, closing in on 1 million global deliveries a year after delivering 308,000 vehicles in the fourth quarter.
Bentley, which is owned by Germany’s Volkswagen Group, will also have have to contend with luxury options from Porsche, BMW and Mercedes-Benz, all of whom have luxury options available in 2022.
In addition to the legacy luxury brands with EV offerings, upstart company’s like Lucid LCID and Rivian will also beat Bentley to market.
Bentley Has Hybrids Already on the Road
Bently already offers a hybrid version of its Bentayga SUV for $160,000 and a hybrid version of its Flying Spur sedan for a little over $200,000.
Wednesday, Bentley announced that it will expand its hybrid offerings with a few new hybrid variants of existing models coming this year. The company says by 2024 all of its models will have a plug-in hybrid options. By 2026, all of its internal combustion engine vehicles will be plug-in hybrids.
In 2021, Bentley reported its second consecutive year of record sales. The company sold 14,659 vehicles last year, a 31% increase over the 11,206 it sold in 2020.
Bentley plans for more than 20% of its sales this year to be plug-in models.
