Bentley News: Bentley Plans to Debut Bentayga Plug-In Hybrid At Geneva

[William Maley]

Bentley has been talking about building a plug-in hybrid variant of their Bentayga SUV for quite some time and soon they'll be revealing it to the world.

According to Automotive News Europe, Bentley will be debuting the plug-in hybrid variant at the Geneva Motor Show in March. It is thought that Bentley would use the same powertrain found in the Porsche Panamera E-Hybrid - a 2.9L twin-turbo V6 paired with 136 horsepower electric motor to produce a combined output of 462 horsepower. When fully charged, the E-Hybrid can travel up 30 miles on electric power alone. We're expecting the Bentayga to have a shorter range.

The Plug-In Hybrid version of the Bentayga will go on sale in the second-half of 2018, giving Bentley three different engine options for the U.S. - a 4.0L twin-turbo V8 and 6.0L twin-turbo W12. Europe also gets the option of a V8 diesel.

Source: Automotive News Europe (Subscription Required)

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[daves87rs]

Only 30? You would think for the price they could at least do 50...

[smk4565]

Nobody wants a 2.9 liter V6 Bentley with 462 hp.  A plug in hybrid V8 would be much more fitting for Bentley.  The only place this hybrid Bentayga makes sense is China where they have a displacement tax at 3 liters and they are looking to mandate EV’s.

[G. David Felt]

12 minutes ago, smk4565 said:

Nobody wants a 2.9 liter V6 Bentley with 462 hp.  A plug in hybrid V8 would be much more fitting for Bentley.  The only place this hybrid Bentayga makes sense is China where they have a displacement tax at 3 liters and they are looking to mandate EV’s.

Europe as well as asia had displacement taxes and they are all looking to up them to push the autos into EV mode. I think they do not sell enough to justify the high cost and even the rich while many here say they do not care about the tax or gas price, actually do.

Just sad that european automakers can only look at 20 to 30 miles on pure electricity. when it has been proven you can do so much better. 

Pathetic engineering and vision by these companies. 

[smk4565]

I actually think 20-30 miles is plenty of range for a plug-in hybrid because you aren’t going to be in EV only that much  and a lot of commutes are less than 20 miles anyway.  

The problem with any plugin even if it had 100 mile range is you still have 2 power systems and you still burn gas.  A mild hybrid almost makes more sense from a cost-benefit standpoint until you can switch to full electric.