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| Image Source: RACHEL CORMACK |
Bentley
First EV expected to be on the road in 2025 or 2026.
Bentley's
strategy of engineering the first electric car is likely to be different from
the rest of the automakers' strategies manufacturing electric vehicles that
follow the SUV body style. The majority
made-up plan to go their first electric vehicle with SUV model, the reason to
capture the demand for that kind of model, but Bentley has picked up the
traditional design, and will come up with its first EV a saloon.
The floor will be the house of its
first EV power pack battery, and the intention is to make it a little
higher-rider. The cabin has ample space from inside and also improves its
credentials to experience grand touring with high performance and better
capabilities in replacement of today’s car.
The delivery of the car on the said
date for the range of customers is a challenging task for designers and
engineers as well.
The massive investment in batteries
technology indeed will be played an important role in cutting the cost along
with the improvement in the capabilities of batteries. However, it is assumed that it is possible
only when batteries reach production, seems probably impossible at least near
the end of this decade.
Bentley is likely to rely on the most
advance version of current lithium-ion battery technology when it is launching
its first EV, of course, a luxury saloon.
The new Bentley EV looks resemblance
with the Jaguar model I-Pace but has more advance level of technology and
luxurious, said Adrian Hallmark, CEO, to Autocar. As the new EV design is based
on traditional saloon shape with little modification by keeping a higher-riding
body style to the house battery pack in-floor avoiding turn into SUV style,
which is aerodynamically inefficient and therefore reduces range.
“If we’re to launch an electric car in
the mid-2020s, then it either needs to be smaller than today’s cars or the same
size but not as upright, and smaller isn’t an appealing solution, as it implies
a lower price segment,” said Hallmark. “The prediction is battery technology
will have moved forward again by that date, and that will put us at the edge of
what we think we need to give customers: 300-350 miles of range, or enough to
cruise at a 65mph average for five hours.
“We need to be looking at how we can
deliver slippier cars with a profile that gets the most out of it
aerodynamically in order to deliver on that promise.”
The challenging date of 2025 and
Hallmark’s statement endorsing evidence that the first EV will be crown with
environment friendly status and sustainability leadership that the automaker
has been earned in recent year.
Bentley’s engineering workshop awarded
a carbon-neutral certificate last year, emphasizing on increasingly
sustainability approach that has been extended as far as making honey from
on-site beehives.
Bentley is well known over
the world for adapting unique interior styles –that conquered its rivals for
decades-albeit incorporated with technical advances like biometric seating to
monitor and potentially increase the well-being of occupants.
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| Image Source : RACHEL CORMACK |
The company has the aim to deliver a
value car to its customers, which is the best alternative of the money they
will ready to pay, and put us on driving seats to drive the industry as we
desire.
He added further,
Of course, the leading luxury segment
of electrification is our prime goal, but couple it with sustainability feature
is inevitable.
Our buyers are pleased to pay a
premium amount for the genuinely carbon-neutral car, and that is the prime
mission of the company.
The Hallmark further added that the
company has a very keen interest in solid-state batteries, becomes viable –used
to store power for the EVs. In regards to them, ho said to Autocar
representative:
“Of course, they will initially be at the top
end of the price scale, but which car maker within the [Volkswagen] Group is
best placed with customers to carry that cost? I very much hope that Bentley
can be at the vanguard of that and it seems logical that we should be.”
Albeit the company has set the
deadline of year 2025 for the launch of EV, but the offer of hybrid versions of
model will be available for the next three years that is up to 2023. Finally
Hallmark summed up the conversation with the following statement
"For 100 years, we’ve tried to make
engines bigger and more powerful. For the next 10 years, we’re going to try to
make them disappear."
Source Autocar