At the Bentley factory in Crewe, there were once signs dotted around the grounds warning: ‘Caution – Silent Vehicle’. This was in the era when most cars were noisy and dirty, and Bentleys, with their sophisticated build quality, were closer to silent – a true sign of luxury. It was therefore legitimate guidance to pedestrians, if not a little tongue in cheek, a doff of the cap to the quality machines the company was building. Now more than 100 years old, the company may have to dust off those old signs as Bentley is going electric… and the happy by-product of that environmental positive approach is quiet vehicles. It’s fair to say Bentley has embraced the switch to electric more swiftly and aggressively than some other established manufacturers, certainly in the luxury sector. And it’s not just the power plant in the cars. Bentley has implemented a blueprint across the whole of its business that will see not just emission-free cars but carbon-neutral factories, retailers and a focus on improving every aspect of its corporate behaviour.

Bentley has introduced two new plug-in hybrid models in the past year, which mark the move away from petrol to electric. The Flying Spur Hybrid has just come to the market and it joins the Bentayga PHEV (Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle). The Bentayga SUV was the obvious place to start with the move away from internal combustion engines. Bentley’s best-selling model mates a V6 turbo engine to an e-motor with batteries in the floor. With a combined 443 bhp it will allow a 5.5 sec run to 62mph and a top speed of 158mph, which is impressive for an admittedly heavy SUV. It may not have a particularly long range on pure electric power – around 25 miles – but owners who have driveways or garages and home-installed charging facilities are enjoying the fact that they maybe get to work or the gym in EV Mode and still get to drive a large statement luxury vehicle with one of the nicest cabins in the business. It’s a mindset and customer appetite that Bentley will look to exploit over the coming years when we will see the switch over to electric-only powered cars that will be capable of hundreds of miles on one charge.

Bentley has committed to fully ditching petrol by 2030 – lickety-split for a big car manufacturer with multi-year product development cycles. The aggressive transition will see Bentley roll out five new cars by then – one a year from 2025. The so-called “Five-in-Five” plan is a quintet of electric models that will look to extol all the virtues of Bentley, but crucially without an exhaust pipe. Drivers of a certain age will always associate Bentley not only with luxury motoring but with engaging, hugely powerful multi-cylinder engines. Bentley will undoubtedly entice new buyers to the brand, but it will be interesting to see how these new models will bottle the Bentley essence and how they will drag its loyal customers along on this journey.

The plan comes with £2.5 billion of sustainable investment to transform the company and factory into a world-leading high-end manufacturing hub that will also be carbon neutral by 2030. Big brother the Volkswagen Group will assist with technology, but these cars will be developed and built in the UK. It’s all part of the Beyond100 strategy, with chairman and CEO of Bentley Motors Adrian Hallmark leading the charge. ‘This latest announcement regarding Bentley’s Beyond100 plan confirms the initiation of a major transformative phase in the company’s long and illustrious history,’ he says. ‘The world is changing and we need to play our part in neutralising our environmental impact. That means delivering on our aim to be end-to-end carbon neutral by 2030 and reaffirming our role as the leader in sustainable luxury mobility.’

Hints of what is to come were seen in the EXP 100GT Concept, which was unveiled as part of the centenary celebrations in 2019. As with most concepts, it’s in part wacky and spectacular and in part a fairly reliable crystal ball into the future. On the eccentric side, we saw 5,000-year- old copper-infused river wood (reclaimed from the bottom of peat bogs) used as the interior trim. Tricky to use on a production line of cars, but the more salient message is the desire to use sustainable materials and champion recycling. Similarly, the AI-powered Bentley Personal Assistant may feel a bit Minority Report with its hand gestures to control comfort modes, but enhanced customisation and a focus on driver wellbeing will certainly become an important marker in future luxury mobility.

The aim of all this is to make the second century of Bentley’s existence at least as illustrious as the first and it will all happen on site in Crewe. The site, originally set up to build Merlin engines for Spitfires and Lancaster bombers in World War II, has been dubbed the “Dream Factory” in premises that no longer build machines of destruction, but vehicles that will hopefully go some way to helping the planet.

Beyond100, Dream Factory, Five-in-Five – no good strategy is complete without some buzzwords to get the juices flowing. It’s easy to roll your eyes and dismiss these as gesturing, with companies elbowing each other out the way to wave the green environmental flag. Yet, Bentley’s clear strategy is a statement of optimism. Coupled with what it means for manufacturing in this country, it is hard not to feel that the future of the UK luxury car market is bright… and almost certainly electric.

bentleymotors.com