2013 Bentley Continental Gt Speed 2dr Cpe on 2040-cars

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Bentley shows plug-in hybrid concept ahead of Beijing, will power SUV in 2017

From its more mainstream, popular origins in the original Honda Insight and Toyota Prius, the hybrid powertrain has worked its way up to the the corner office, the big chair, the top slot in the corporation. Bentley has announced that it will introduce a plug-in hybrid option on its SUV due in 2017. Before then, we'll see what an electrically assisted Bentley looks like at the Beijing Motor Show when the Crewe automaker shows off a copper-accented Mulsanne that's been reworked into its Hybrid Concept, pictured above.
We don't have any official specs just yet, the only major announcement being that any Bentley hybrid will be able to travel at least 50 kilometers (31 miles) on pure electric thrust and get a power boost of "up to" 25 percent from its electric side. We use the phrase "any Bentley hybrid" because the company's CEO says "we will gradually introduce this powertrain across our model range" to 90 percent of the brand's lineup.
We'll know more when the Beijing show commences. For now, there's the press release below and the high-res gallery above.

2014 Bentley Flying Spur

Redefining Super Luxury On A Shrinking Planet
Anyone on Earth with access to the Internet, a television or radio for the last 20 years knows that China is no longer the poor stronghold for strict Communist ideals that it was for much of the 20th Century. (Well, at least not in some places.) Traveling to China twice in less than a month - first to Shanghai for a very international auto show and now to Beijing to drive and review the 2014 Bentley Flying Spur - I've learned that there's no lack of personal wealth, at least in two of the world's largest cities.
And yet, even I think the scene before me is a little bit ridiculous. Here I am, slowly climbing up a hillside to reach a fortification at something called Zhuanduo Pass, where roughly a dozen pristine examples of Western decadence sit idling their hand-built 12-cylinder engines in the shadow of China's revered and awesome Great Wall. Not five kilometers south of here, I'd passed an old man in traditional all-black garb, literally carrying a bundle of sticks on his back from one side of a village to the other. Now as I look through the snug-fitting and silent side glass of the my $200,000+ palace on wheels, I'm more apt to see fat German tourists crisping in the hot Chinese sun while blowing the equivalent of an average Chinese monthly paycheck on lunch and a few Great Wall souvenirs.

Bentley SUV sheds some camo

Bentley keeps itself busy and on our minds with ever-faster versions of the Continental family and even, most recently, of the Mulsanne. While a new coupe is said to be around the corner, the biggest project Crewe has going on at the moment is its new SUV. And this is our clearest look at it yet.
Spied with less camouflage than ever before while undergoing testing near the Nürburgring, Bentley's as-yet unnamed sport-ute is being based on the same new platform that will underpins the next Volkswagen Touareg, Audi Q7, Porsche Cayenne and - if finally approved - the production version of the Lamborghini Urus concept.
Bentley's is sure to be one of the higher-end models to be based on that platform, opening up a new segment soon to be populated as well by the upcoming Maserati Levante, Range Rover Sport SVR and other potential ultra-high-end SUVs and crossovers from the likes of Land Rover, Aston Martin Lagonda and Daimler's restrategized Maybach.