Bentley is known the world over as one of the most popular luxury car brands, though the time to launch their first electric car is coming closer and it is scheduled to arrive in markets sometime during 2025. What’s remarkable is of course the incredible acceleration which will see the car go from a standstill to almost 100kph in just 1.5 seconds! Interested in another remarkable fact? The acceleration isn’t even going to be marketed as the main selling point of the car!
CEO Adrian Hallmark stated in an interview with Automotive News Europe that they would not let the brutality of acceleration define the company, and said that the car would also have the option of accelerating slower, with customers being given the ability to toggle between 1.5 seconds and 2.7 seconds for the acceleration from 0-100. The reason for this is simple- the average human might feel nauseous with the tremendous G-forces. Hallmark said that the thrill might be present for the first 10 times it is done, after which the nausea might kick in and make occupants sick.
The main attribute of the new EV will rather be the car’s “effortless overtaking performance from a huge amount of torque on demand,” Hallmark said. “Most people enjoy the 30 to 70 mph (50 to 113 kph) acceleration, or in Germany the 30 to 150 mph (50 to 240 kph) acceleration,” he said.
-Bentley CEO, Adrian Hallmark
Another statement Hallmark casually dropped was that whatever amount of power the upcoming GT Speed would have, the EV would have double of that. Yes, double the power of the 650HP as seen in the GT Speed! However, as of now what the car will exactly be is unknown, but Hallmark wanted to stress on the fact that this would not be a limousine.
The car will be built on Audi’s existing PPE (premium performance electric) platform, and the car will be assembled at Bentley’s factory in Crewe, England with production beginning in 2025. The company also said that the car would be incremental to the current range of Bentley’s existing roster of cars. Pricing is also an unknown, but it is expected that one of the variants will be sold at a price of over 250,000 euros. Finally, it was interesting to hear Hallmark say that the batteries cost lesser than their current 12-cylinder engines, and that he could not wait for batteries to become centerplace as they are a lot cheaper in relative terms.
