2020 Bentley Continental Gt V8 First Edition Coupe on 2040-cars

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Bentley CEO Adrian Hallmark explains carmaker's situation and plan for recovery

In August, we posted on some of the issues plaguing Bentley at the moment, namely the large loss the carmaker's posted this year. The same Autocar piece we referenced, carmaker CEO Adrian Hallmark said Bentley would not be making more sports cars. Bentley wrote to us to clarify that a single year's loss isn't a calamity, that "it is a mistake to suggest that sports cars are the same as GTs," and that the brand "will continue to design, engineer, and craft" GT cars. We must note, though, that at the time, Hallmark himself said, "The sports car sector – like our own...." More recently, Hallmark expounded on some of the factors slowing the company down this year, from delayed launches to exchange rates. Through the first nine months of the year, Bentley sold 6,654 units, an 11 percent decline from the 7,498 units sold through the first nine months of 2017. In addition to other matters like huge investments in new technologies, that helped the Crewe carmaker to a $44.7-million year-over-year drop in revenue, and a $156-million overall loss, compared to a $35 million profit over the same period last year. On top of declining sales overall, the nine-month delay in launching the Continental GT, the brand's second-best seller, was the first of two big issues causing red finances. Hallmark said the Continental GT "just wasn't ready for launch. But we'd paid for it – we'd paid all the money out, but not got any money back in." Having got that sorted, the second issue arose: WLTP certification. Unlike the New European Driving Cycle (NEDC) before it, the Worldwide harmonized Light vehicles Test Procedure requires every model variant get tested for certification. Hallmark told Automotive News Europe, "We were not quick enough unfortunately to book capacity or prioritize our derivatives within some of the group processes to get them certified on time." Bentley wasn't alone in this; Volkswagen had only managed to get seven of its 14 models approved by September 1 when the WLTP rules took effect. Bentley's much smaller scale exacerbated the problem, turning the situation "close to catastrophic." Hallmark said the snafu robbed the Bentayga of 300 to 400 sales - a gigantic number with respect to a $200,000 vehicle - and pushed the Bentayga plug-in hybrid launch back to March 2019 so Bentley could get volume models certified. Furthermore, preparing for Brexit hasn't been easy on any of the UK's manufacturers.

Bentley Batur is the next Mulliner creation after the Bacalar

Bentley's Mulliner personalization division launched the Balacar Speedster in 2020 — named after Laguna Bacalar in Mexico's Quintana Roo state — and sold the limited run of 12 examples almost immediately at about $2 million per. With just four Bacalars remaining to be delivered to customers, and since the first rule of having a hit is having a follow-up ready, it's no wonder that Mulliner will introduce its next small-batch, bespoke car in 10 days: At 8 p.m. Pacific time on Saturday, August 20, during Monterey Car Week, the Crewe automaker will unveil the Batur. Our invitation to exhilaration. This is where finely-honed bespoke craftsmanship and next-generation design meet. The #Bentley #Mulliner #Batur. 04:00 BST, 21.08.2022 pic.twitter.com/g0kV5K2ffJ — Bentley Motors (@BentleyMotors) August 9, 2022 We know a couple of things about the Batur. It's not clear what vehicle the model is based on, but we're told it will be a "hand-built grand touring Bentley." We're going to guess this means the Flying Spur chassis gets the nod, because the next thing we know about the Batur is it "showcases themes and forms that will define BentleyÂ’s future range of Battery Electric Vehicles." Bentley's first EV is anticipated to be a high-riding sedan sitting on Volkswagen's SSP battery-electric platform, the even more luxurious follow-up to the Audi Artemis electric sedan that will introduce upscale versions of the SSP architecture. The short video shows a very Bentley diamond grille laid in with burnt orange accents.    The last thing we know about the Batur is that it's named after another body of water, this time Lake Batur in Kintamani, on the island of Bali in Indonesia. There looks to be quite a span between the Batur's EV-forward design and the first Bentley EV. A report out of Germany in July said the VW Group continues to struggle with software for the swarm of battery-electric product the brand wants by 2030, pushing launches back potentially by years — issues that cost former VW Group CEO Herbert Diess his job. Audi's retail version of the Grandsphere concept might not show until 2027 instead of 2024, and the first Bentley EV that was due in 2025 might face a similar delay.

Bentley Flying Spur pictures leaked early

We can imagine that automakers are among the groups salivating at the prospect of a colony on Mars - perhaps a photo studio on the red planet will be far enough away from the terrestrial Internet to keep everything they've got from leaking all over the web. In the midst of Bentley's teasing for the next-generation Flying Spur, someone got in early on a set of photos and decided to share them with us.
The transformation is all about character, the super sedan's lines getting injected with a whole lot more of it. The family face of the Continental line is evident, the new Spur getting a more upright grille than before and a Mulsanne-esque undivided lower grille. The front fenders get narrow, horizontal vents, and behind that the character line that starts with at the hood shutline runs in a long arc to the rear door, then rolls up into haunches that terminate at the very back. Lower down, a character line cuts up the bulk up the sides. In profile there is a definite hint of this being a junior Mulsanne.
The only item we see at the moment that could take some getting used to are the horizontal taillights. Housing a large single element topped by curved red brows, our initial impression is that they lack the flow of the rest of the car. Inside, it's what you'd expect from a Bentley.