Bentley is adopting a much more flexible and agile electrification strategy in response to uncertainties in the marketplace, having scrapped a previous plan to make the brand all-electric by 2030.
In 2020, the company announced plans to phase out all combustion models by the end of this decade, but in light of waning luxury EV demand and relaxed rules on selling ICE cars in the years since, it delayed the launch of the electric Torcal by a year and began developing a new range of plug-in hybrids.
It now isn't expected to launch another model on the Torcal's Porsche-derived PPE platform; its next EV is due to arrive the other side of 2030, likely using a variation of the Volkswagen Group's next-generation SSP architecture.
Speaking at a preview event for the Torcal, Bentley CEO Frank-Steffan Walliser told Autocar that the previously outlined strategy wasn't compatible with how the car market has evolved throughout the 2020s.
Asked whether Bentley had set a new timeline for going all-electric, he said: "With all the planning and things changing – and I'm sure regulators have new ideas every week – my answer is maybe not what you expect: we will bring in more flexibility in our strategies.
"We have to react a little bit more, not just say: 'this is the plan'. In the past, you made a plan for 10 years and then you just went with it. We delivered the cars in a relatively stable environment. It's not the case any more.
"We need the flexibility. This is the reason why, on the manufacturing side, we are trying to bring together EVs and plug-in hybrids on the same line in future, so we have full flexibility – also to meet market demand and regulations.
"So we need way more flexibility: shortening the cycle times, shortening the development times. This predictable planning is honestly gone, and I don't think it will come back."
In line with that push for flexibility, Walliser said Bentley had cut development times for new models down to 48 months and is aiming to accelerate that further to 36, matching sibling brand Volkswagen.
Continuing to offer a multi-powertrain line-up is central to that flexibility too, but Walliser said there's no scope to introduce a hybrid version of the Torcal.
That's partly because its platform is EV-specific but also because then "it would overlap" with the slightly larger Bentayga, "and I really would like to have product identity".
