Bentley Guns For All-Electric Shift By 2030 With Focus On Eco-Friendly Luxury Vehicles

Ten years from now, Bentley will still boast of a premium line of vehicle offerings but the British automaker is making sure that these luxurious rides are fully carbon neutral. The company is going all-electric and the transition is set for completion in 2030.

To kick off the green-focused effort, Bentley will start rolling out hybrid models in 2021, and two years after, all Bentley car brands will be running on hybrid powertrains. Then in 2025, the company's first all-electric vehicles will hit the road and around the same time, Bentley's manufacturing facilities will be reducing their carbon footprints by up to 75%.

Bentley CEO Adrian Hallmark sounded off the planned switch from gasoline-fired engines to the electric-powered types. The company is known for its 12-cylinder motor engines and according to Hallmark, this will be a thing of the past in a decade.

"[We] will not be building engines in less than a decade," the company said in an online presentation, and per the report by CNET.

The carbon-free blueprint is in line with the UK government's thrust of phasing out vehicles that run on fossil fuels. The target is to make the British roads exclusive to EVs by 2035 or earlier, and Bentley is taking the steps to comply with the new order the soonest it can.

Bentley provided no specific timeline on when the first EV will come out of its production lines but the EXP 100 GT was unveiled last year. The concept car is all-electric but it remains unclear if this will be Bentley's initial EV offering.

The company, however, made clear that Bentley's signature trademark will be maintained as the shift to electric will be easily identifiable - sustainable luxury.

Hallmark gave the assurance that Bentley car users will still experience a vehicle brand that remains "glorious and inspirational" but without causing any harm on the environment. The automaker revealed that apart from being carbon-free, its EV models will be manufactured using eco-friendly materials.

Interestingly, the pivot will also see Bentley implementing a new policy that will make the company's management talents more diverse. On this, the status is presently rated at 20% diverse, which would be increased to 30%.

The company said all the planned changes are aligned with the environmental targets set by the Volkswagen Group, which is Bentley's parent company. For the British automaker, the targeted transformations are outlined on its Beyond 100 corporate strategy, according to Electrek.

In celebration of its 100 years in the industry, Bentley vowed to remain at the forefront of the modern lifestyle experience, which the company dubbed as "sustainable luxury mobility."