Bentley delays first EV, won't be released until late 2026
Bentley (VWAGY) announced that its first EV will be delayed until late 2026. According to the company, the delay is due to macroeconomic uncertainty. In a roundtable with journalists, CEO Adrian Hallmark says the automaker will continue to offer hybrids beyond the company's 2030 deadline for all of its cars to be EVs. He also cites the current cooling EV demand.
Yahoo Finance Reporter Pras Subramanian joins the Live show to discuss what he heard at the roundtable and break down the latest development for Bentley and how it may impact the company moving forward.
For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Yahoo Finance Live.
Editor's note: This article was written by Nicholas Jacobino
Video Transcript
BRAD SMITH: Bentley's electric vehicle lineup coming in later than anticipated. The luxury automaker delaying its timeline on an all-EV future by a few years. Yahoo Finance Senior Autos Reporter Pras Subramanian here to tell us why this luxury automotive manufacturer is pushing it out a little bit here.
PRAS SUBRAMANIAN: Yeah. They still want to hit that 2030 EV timeline, but-- but Bentley CEO Adrian hallmark told me and a group of journalists at a roundtable last week that some hybrids may extend beyond the companies that previous 20, 30, 20, 30 all EV deadline. They think that, you know, as EV demand cools, they want to keep some of these performance hybrids going-- going strong here because perform-- demand is still high for these cars. Of course, we're seeing EV demand sort of reverse there. So they're pushing back their first-- the debut of their first EV to 2026. So, 2025. And they want to have these EV cars out by 2030, but there just might not have fully electric portfolio just quite yet.
SEANA SMITH: Suprprised as this is a setback here for the company. As you look out to what demand is going to look like here for Bentley, 2023 was a bit tough here, given the obviously macroeconomic environment. Right now, how does it look for 2024? We're expecting to see more of a rebound.
PRAS SUBRAMANIAN: So I spoke to Adrian about these issues. And he said that 2023 was a-- a bit of a dip compared to 2022 because it was such a strong year. They had so many people who were pandemic-buying like crazy, and they couldn't even fulfill. They had 16,000 orders. Only 15,000 slots to actually make these cars, which is a lot for a-- a huge or a lot for a luxury automaker based in Britain. So 2023 also saw uneven performance in China and Europe. Basically, China is-- had a bad first half but then improved second half. Europe was the reverse. Good first half, bad second half. And the US has been pretty strong.
So looking ahead to 2024, they expect kind of more of the same improvement in China. I think it was a big factor for them because that's a huge market for-- for them with the Bentayga and cars like that. So, yeah. I think that you're going to see that, plus personalizations. Custom work is like a huge profit driver that was 70% of orders had these in their cars last year. So they think that continues, and they want to keep pushing that personalization custom work for their cars.
BRAD SMITH: Interesting. All right. We'll see if I can ever become one of the Bentley potential buyers out there.
SEANA SMITH: We can all aspire.
BRAD SMITH: Prospective and aspirational. Thank you so much, Pras. Appreciate it.
