Bentley Goes Electric With Bentayga Hybrid
Bentley is one of the world’s most prestigious luxury vehicle manufacturers. If you think of a word to describe them, you’d probably conjure up thoughts of speed, luxury and opulence. You could probably think of another hundred words before arriving to ‘fuel efficient’, and nobody would even blame you. That would have been the case until now. Meet the first electrified Bentley – the Bentayga Hybrid.
The first deliveries of the new Bentley Bentayga Hybrid are a big deal to the English manufacturer and, according to Bentley, is only the first of many upcoming electrified model variants that they plan to produce over the next four years. The timing of the Bentayga Hybrid deliveries also coincides with Bentley’s centenary celebration. "As we prepare for the next 100 years, we are investing significantly in new initiatives that reinforce our commitment to sustainability, as demonstrated by the visionary all-electric Bentley EXP 100 GT concept," says Peter Bosch, Bentley's member of the Board for Manufacturing.
The Bentley Bentayga Hybrid makes use of a twin-scroll turbocharged 3.0-litre petrol V6 supplemented by an electric motor to produce a maximum output of 350kW of power and 700Nm of torque. This accelerates the Hybrid from 0-100km/h in 5.5-seconds before reaching its top speed of 254km/h. For those of you who may not know, Bentley falls under the Volkswagen umbrella so we sort of expected a hybrid Bentayga to come along sooner or later, especially considering how much of its genetics are shared with the Audi Q7, Volkswagen Touareg and Porsche Cayenne. Aside from the efficiency improvements, the Bentley brand as a whole will benefit from having an up-to-date brand and appeal to a wider range of environmentally conscious buyers. In addition to electrification, Bentley is also looking to make their cars lighter in future.
