Automotive News Europe - December 2019 - 17

AUTOMOTIVE NEWS EUROPE

AUTOMAKERS

electric powertrains Bentley is making
changes at its production base in Crewe,
northwest England, where it has been
building cars since 1946. Development
work is being moved to a new site across
the road from Bentley's headquarters to
free up assembly space among the historic brick buildings.

then couldn't build them. And when we
could build them, we couldn't ship them
and sell them because the certification
wasn't in place," Hallmark said.
The replacement for the Continental GT,
traditionally one of Bentley's best-sellers,
was unveiled at the 2017 Frankfurt auto
show, but Bentley has only just started
selling the coupe and the convertible versions of the car in the U.S. Meanwhile,
global sales of the Flying Spur sedan
start in the first quarter next year. Hallmark estimates markets that account
for about 40 percent of the brand's global volume didn't have its newest models
for large portions of this year.
The brand's main revenue generator in
the meantime has been the Bentayga
SUV. Sales are still strong after launching in 2015 but neither it nor the niche
Mulsanne limousine could carry the
company, forcing it to slash costs. Bentley cut 450 people, about 10 percent
of its workforce, and made efficiency
improvements that reduced the time its
core models spent on each station to a
little more than 9 minutes from more
than 12 minutes. Hallmark describes
the efficiency improvements, helped by
Porsche Consulting, as being some of
the most comprehensive in the industry
over the last 12 months. "It's certainly
more than Porsche achieved back in
the 1990s when [former CEO Wendelin]
Wiedeking did the first phase of lean,"
Hallmark said.
Under its two previous CEOs, Bentley targeted annual sales of 15,000 by 2018,
but since 2014 the brand's volume has

We have turned
the corner.
Bentley CEO Adrian Hallmark

Reading between the lines of Hallmark's
statements, the electric platform layout
will push development toward a crossover with a smaller footprint than traditional Bentleys, even if the cabin space
doesn't change. "But that's not because
we want to build a small car. We just
don't want to waste space on the outside," he told ANE. On our visit to Crewe
Audi e-tron and Mercedes-Benz EQC
electric SUVs were spotted undergoing
evaluation.

Electric car by 2025

Another model line would give Bentley
more resilience to boom-and-bust cycles
that all automakers with limited ranges
suffer from, especially in the ultraluxury
segment where buyers are easily distracted by the next fashionable launch.
But Bentley still has work to do, IHS
Markit principal automotive analyst Tim
Urquhart said. "The volumes have grown
but profits really haven't," he said. "It's
a difficult sector. All it takes is for the
global economy to catch a cold, and they
are back to losing money again."

Instead, Bentley is planning to launch an
electric car by 2025. That model is likely
to be underpinned by the Premium Platform Electric (PPE) that Bentley is codeveloping with sister brands Porsche
and Audi. To prepare for the shift to full-

For now, however, Bentley is in a healthy
place. "We had the perfect storm, now
everything is running as it should," Hallmark said. "We have built the cars. They
are on quality. They are on quantity. We
have turned the corner." ANE

stalled between 10,500 and 11,000. After joining in February 2018 Hallmark
nixed talk of a Bentley sports car and, according to one source, killed the planned
development of a Bentley model on the
same J1 electric platform as the recently
launched Porsche Taycan.

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DECEMBER 2019

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