Bentley’s first EV will be a ‘luxury urban SUV’ launching in 2026

Bentley has confirmed that its first fully electric car will be revealed in 2026, and it’ll take the form of a ‘luxury urban SUV’.

Despite the firm’s claims that this will “create an entirely new segment”, it sounds very much like a posh crossover to us. Our best guess is Bentley will look to use the VW Group’s PPE platform that currently underpins the Porsche Macan EV and the Audi Q6 e-tron.

There is however confirmation that the as-yet unnamed EV will be designed, developed and produced at Bentley’s headquarters in Crewe. It’ll also mark the start of a new plan for Bentley to launch a PHEV or BEV model every single year over the following decade. Previously Bentley had committed to releasing its first EV in 2025, and it had promised to follow that up with a new fully electric car each year until 2030.

That original plan was part of Bentley’s ‘Beyond100’ business strategy first unveiled in late 2020, but it's now been superseded by ‘Beyond100+’. Hopefully the team tasked with naming the new cars is a little more imaginative. 

Beyond100+ now says Bentley won’t go all-electric until 2035 (the previous aim was 2030) and that it’ll continue to produce plug-in hybrids until then. Of course, after recent updates the Continental GT and Flying Spur are already only offered with V8 hybrid powertrains. 

“We adapt to today’s economic, market and legislative environment to initiate a major transformative phase for tomorrow,” said new Bentley boss Frank-Steffen Walliser. 

“Beyond100+ becomes our guiding light as we extend our ambitions beyond 2030, while maintaining our aim of a decarbonised future, including offering only fully electric cars from 2035, and reinforcing our credentials as the British creator of extraordinary cars for over a century and beyond.”

This isn’t the first e-SUV announcement we’ve heard this week of course. AMG also announced an intention to build its very own car (that won’t just be a modified Merc) in the near future. How will this Bentley one stack up?