The beginning will be marked with the Electro-luxe SUV, the carmaker’s first all electric car. Bentley’s EV will employ the Volkswagen Group’s Artemis platform, led by Audi. “With Artemis we’re right in there at the beginning, helping define it. We’re not leading it, but we’re going to be a beneficiary of it, ” CEO Adrian Hallmark told CAR Magazine. The cooperation with Audi, he added, is a good opportunity for the brand to accelerate its transition to EVs. Hallmark thinks that the electric vehicles fit Bentley’s “quiet, effortless, high torque, refined performance.” Nevertheless, he emphasizes that battery weight is still a concern, and Bentley will focus on weight savings and aerodynamics as a result. No details about the Electro-luxe SUV are known, but it will probably debut after the Flying Spur plug-in hybrid later in 2021, and a Continental GT plug-in hybrid, which doesn’t appear to have a specific release date as yet. Do EVs excite your electrons? Do ebikes get your wheels spinning? Do self-driving cars get you all charged up? Then you need the weekly SHIFT newsletter in your life. Click here to sign up.
