Bentley plans to make its entire lineup plug-in hybrid or all-electric by 2026, and will switch entirely to battery-electric vehicles by 2030.
Announced during an online press conference Wednesday, the electrification push is part of Bentley's plan to become "end-to-end" carbon neutral by 2030.
That also includes lower the environmental impact of its tier-one supply chain, and reducing emission from operations. Bentley's factory was certified as carbon neutral by the Carbon Trust last year, and the automaker aims to lower its emissions 75% from 2010 levels by 2025.
Bentley previously announced that it would offer a hybrid variant of every model by 2023, and launch its first all-electric model by 2026.
A plug-in hybrid version of the Bentayga SUV launched last year as a 2020 model. It will be followed by two more plug-in hybrid launches in 2021, and the all-electric model will appear a year earlier, in 2025, Bentley said.
2020 Bentley Bentayga Hybrid
This is quite a leap for a brand that, by its own estimation, is the world's largest producer of 12-cylinder gasoline engines, and has been wildly inconsistent about its aims for electrification over the past decade.
Most recently, around 2016, the brand had said that it was considering the idea of an all-electric range, to be led by a coupe.
An intriguing all-electric convertible concept and the possibility of a Bentley electric SUV followed in 2017.
But in 2019, with a change in some of its leadership, the board member in charge of Bentley engineering said that it was not sold on fully electric vehicles.
Bentley earlier this year said that the first fully electric model from the brand, will say no to rare-earth magnets for sustainability reasons. The automaker said it had developed an experimental "e-axle" that is fully recyclable, and could lead to technology for future production cars.
