The company will become “a new, sustainable, wholly ethical role model for luxury,” Chief Executive Officer Adrian Hallmark said. Bentley’s accelerated transformation toward battery-powered vehicles is part of a $40 billion push by its German parent Volkswagen AG, which is developing the industry’s biggest lineup of electric cars as it seeks to challenge Tesla Inc.
“We are pushing to modernize and again reposition Bentley for a new generation,” he continues, pointing to the brand’s exponential growth in the early 2000s. “There will be not a slow progression toward electric cars, but an inflection point in the late ’20s when the infrastructure is there.”
Volkswagen already has rolled out the Porsche Taycan, the VW ID.3 and the Audi e-Tron models as part of its target to offer 75 electric cars by the end of the decade. The company’s CEO Herbert Diess told Bloomberg earlier Thursday about Bentley’s electric push.
