By Michael Elkins
In an interview with Automotive News Wednesday, Bentley CEO, Adrian Hallmark said that the company’s first electric vehicle has been delayed one year until 2026. Hallmark failed to provide the reasoning behind the delay but denies that the delay has anything to do with the reported setbacks at Volkswagen Group's (ETR:VOWG_p) Cariad software development unit.
Bloomberg reported on Monday that Volkswagen Group's CEO shift last week was due to delays in model launches at Audi, Bentley and Porsche caused by software issues. Bentley’s electric vehicle, alongside Audi’s, will use a version of Volkswagen’s future SSP platform.
Hallmark said, despite the delay, Bentley will still reveal the EV in 2025. He also mentioned that the delay would be closer to a few months as opposed to a full year.
Interestingly, Hallmark mentioned in the interview that Bentley is in a unique position where an EV battery is actually cheaper than the engines Bentley uses in its cars.
“The average battery is less than our 12-cylinder engine,” he told Automotive News. “I can't wait for batteries, they’re cheap in relative terms.”