Luxury carmaker Bentley has unveiled plans on Tuesday, 15th March, 2022 to build a new electric car model annually for five years starting from 2025, as part of its ‘beyond 100 strategy’.
This decision was reached after the company’s annual profit skyrocketed as the British firm builds on parent company Volkswagen’s push to broaden electric offerings. Bentley is all set to introduce an electric vehicle every year for five years as demand for its hybrid increased.
Carmakers globally are doubling down on efforts to shift to electric models as calls for more environment-friendly machines grow. In the intervening time, Bentley parent company Volkswagen- Europe’s biggest carmaker, is ramping up investments in power infrastructure to take on Tesla.
Bentley itself is targeting to be end-to-end carbon-neutral by 2030, having invested 3 billion euros at its Crewe factory over a period of 10 years to aid this transition.
“Increasing demand for our hybridised models, supported by (3 billion euros) of sustainable investment in our Crewe factory, will ensure we remain the benchmark manufacturer in sustainable luxury mobility,” said Jan-Henrik Lafrentz, member of the board for Finance and IT department at Bentley.
Bentley Posted Huge Profit
Crewe, England-based Bentley posted a profit of 389 million euros ($427.1 million) for 2021, compared with a profit of 20 million euros in the previous year, after deliveries jumped 31% to 14,659 cars on strong demand for new hybrid models.
Bentley’s higher revenue last year touched a turnover of €2.845 billion. The company raised its average revenue per luxury car by 8 per cent over 2020 due to an increased demand for personalised cars as well as models like Speed, Mulliner and Hybrid.
This led to a contribution of 13.7 per cent in return on sales. Previously, Bentley had informed about 14,659 deliveries of cars in 2021 which is a 31 per cent increase compared to the previous record year of 2020. It also disclosed that there was a steady increase in customer interest in new models that have resulted in an order bank at record levels at the beginning of 2022.
The company indicated that 2030 is backed by a ten-year investment programme at the Crewe factory which is €3 billion, as the brand’s entire model range will undergo electrification.
The Chairman and CEO of Bentley Motors, Adrian Hallmark, said these results have been achieved against economic uncertainty. “They represent a major achievement for everybody involved at Bentley Motors, as we push forward with our Beyond100 programme to reinvent our entire product range in the build-up to carbon neutrality by 2030.”
Member of the Board for Finance and IT, Bentley Motors, Jan-Henrik Lafrentz, attributed the current success of the company to the quality of the brand they have maintained for years.
“Brand strength has been key to Bentley’s financial performance in 2021, with new models such as Bentayga Hybrid helping to drive profit to a record €389 million. Increasing demand for our hybridised models, supported by €3 billion of sustainable investment in our Crewe factory, will ensure we remain the benchmark manufacturer in sustainable luxury mobility.”
Jan-Henrik Lafrentz
As part of the European Green Deal this past July, 2021, the EU proposed an entire package of climate proposals, including reductions of new car emissions by 55% by 2030, and 100% by 2035. This proposal is forcing many automobile companies to go electric and Bentley is one of them.
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