Bentley strives for new customer demographics with electrified cars
Heritage UK-based luxury car manufacturer Bentley recently launched the latest model to its line-up: the Bentley Continental GT S, a hybrid vehicle operating on a high performance V8 hybrid powertrain.The GT S is a high-performance luxury grand tourer positioned within Bentley's Continental range, the "S" variant emphasises driving dynamics, producing around 670 bhp, that can achieve 0-60 mph in about 3.3 seconds. Not bad for a car that comes with some serious mass (gross vehicle weight: 2920 kg / 6437 lb).The launch of this hybrid aims to follow Volkswagen Group-owned Bentley’s commitment to developing a more diverse customer base across its global markets, with the promise of a fully electric model launching later this year.During the launch event hosted on the Isle of Man, Frankie Youd spoke with Mike Sayer, head of product communications, to discuss the future of the OEM and to touch on how the ‘traditional’ Bentley customer is shifting. Just Auto (JA): Are hybrids going to be more important than fully electric models for Bentley beyond 2030?Mike Sayer (MS): At the moment, we're in a time of real transition, and the entire automotive industry is trying to keep up with the way the landscape is changing.At Bentley, our approach is to have a real blended solution; later this year, we will launch our first EV, the process for that will start really soon. At the same time with the other end of the spectrum at the end of last year, we launched the ‘Supersports’ pure internal combustion engine (ICE) powertrain, that car goes into build next year. Then in the middle of that space, we've then got the hybrids like the Continental GT S, that strategy will continue for at least the next five years.Once we get into the 2030s, we're still going to have this blended approach for Bentley, a big part of the solution is giving the customer the luxury of choice. Whether you want the sustainability and the ease of use of an EV, whether you want the pure gasoline performance of an ICE engine, or the best of both worlds in a hybrid, our model range will be able to offer our customers all three of those solutions.This is a shift away from our previous strategy of going all EV like so many other manufacturers; we have shifted away from that because of the way the markets evolved. That gets us into the 2030s. After that I think we have to respond to whatever the customer demand is, and where the market is.Bentley Continental GT S hybridIs there a typical Bentley customer and how diverse is the customer base?There's no such thing as typical customer anymore. I think thirty years ago, there might have been, but now there is significant variation by region, both in terms of the age profile and the gender ratio of our customers.The important thing for us is to make sure that the cars and the model ranges that we offer are flexible enough that they can be configured to suit any customer needs. That's obviously a huge part of the Bentley ownership experience; you can personally commission a car that reflects your interests, your specification and your personality, regardless of where in the world you're from, what you think, what you like.We have customers in their twenties and we have customers in their eighties. Part of the fun is to be able to design cars that you can adapt to suit any taste, regardless of who you are.There has been a shift of the average age of our customer globally. It has come down significantly over the last ten or fifteen years. Bentley is being seen as more of a youthful brand. We still have very loyal customers who have bought Bentley's for 25-30 years or more, and we have customers, very young customers now, particularly in some of the more developing markets that are completely new to the brand.Having only one factory in the world that has to make cars to suit an entirely global marketplace is obviously part of the challenge, but also part of the fun.Part of the opportunity that brings is to make sure that you lean into your history. There aren't many 107-year-old car companies in the world, but it can't ever be a pastiche, you can't do it for the sake of it. You have to do it with reason, and you have to learn the lessons from history, take design inspiration of anything from the shape of a car to the texture of a door handle, and work out what the modern iteration of that is.I won't say too much, but you're going to see a lot of that in the in the EV that we're launching later this year. You'll see the future developments of those heritage themes that have been developed by our design team.Looking at the two recently opened India showrooms, what are the initial reactions and indications?India is one of those markets for us where we see real potential. As a brand, we've not been hugely present in India over the last few years; I think we'll see over the course of the year how that goes.We think there's real potential there in the market, the market is very positive towards us. At the moment, those showrooms have had really, really good receptions after opening. Ask me again in a year - hopefully I'll have some good news to report!How important is having Volkswagen as a parent to Bentley?Bentley's relationship with Volkswagen is hugely important. First thing to say is, there is no pipeline of money that comes from Volkswagen to Bentley. We are entirely self-funding. When Bentley was bought by Volkswagen 23 years ago, there was a heavy investment and all of that money has been paid back - we are financially independent.It brings huge opportunity for us, not just in terms of the obvious things, like access to platforms and componentry that we jointly develop, particularly through Porsche and Audi. There are also huge savings for us are in things like development and testing sites. So the facilities that we have access to through the group - the laboratories, the testing locations, and the shared knowledge of those research and development teams is hugely powerful for us.As cars get more and more complicated, particularly with electronics and software, the more experts we have in the business, the easier it is to move through. We are self-determining, we're self-funding, but we have access to this enormous resource across Europe that we can learn from and likewise, they learn from us.We have a number of centres of excellence at the Bentley campus in Crewe, and we can pass on our knowledge, our skills and our learning into some of the group brands as well. We give back, and ultimately it means that we as Bentley can focus our investment on the things that make a Bentley, a Bentley.Twenty years ago, the Bentleys at the start of the Volkswagen era, by necessity, they were modified versions of existing platforms. Now the platforms that we build our products on are designed from the outset to be a Bentley. Our engineers work with our counterparts at Porsche, for example, and we co develop a platform that can be so flexible that it can be a Continental GT or a Porsche Panamera. Those two cars can have completely independent wheelbases, track widths, engine sizes, wheel diameters, interior volumes, all on one platform.What other opportunities, besides car sales, do you see for the Bentley brand for customers with high net worth?We've done a huge amount of work with the brand over the last few years to move into other spaces that aren't just automotive and to really find new opportunities for ourselves.We've announced an extended range of Bentley furniture at Salone de Mobley in Milan. There's a really beautiful range that spans the entire home of Bentley branded furniture.At the same time, we have our architecture projects, the first one being in Miami, and there are more coming. Then we're also undergoing a complete redesign of our branded goods range as well. I can't say much about that yet, but I've seen some early designs, and it's a real shift in the look and feel of Bentley brand of things, it's much more youthful.I have a personal interest in model cars and there's work being done there.The point for us is whether you are a Bentley customer and you're looking to buy a home sound system, furniture or an apartment in one of our architecture projects, or you're an enthusiast and you want a baseball cap, the idea is that the range of Bentley branded lifestyle accessories that are away from the automotive range are as broad as that basis of customers.The look and feel of the brand has to stretch from a residential tower in Miami, down to a free pack of stickers that we might give to a young enthusiast at The Goodwood Festival of Speed, the point is we have that spread.What importance does the International Women’s Day car launch play for the brand?The whole point of that project was not to just do something that celebrated International Women's Day, it was to genuinely celebrate the three extraordinary women behind that car. Working with them was such a pleasure, they're so creative, so talented.Why shouldn't a Bentley be as appealing to any woman in the world as to any man? That's the whole point. I hope that if one woman out there saw that project and was inspired by that would be amazing.That project was not about generating sales, it is about supporting those three incredible talents and embracing them into our brand, showing what they could do when they were doing something out of their usual scope.Most crucially, the reason it was two female designers wasn't because they were women, it's because they were the best people in the company to do that job. We had Amy Shaw taking the pictures, not because she's a woman, but because she is the best, so why not celebrate that."Bentley strives for new customer demographics with electrified cars" was originally created and published by Just Auto, a GlobalData owned brand. 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