2006 Bentley Continental Flying Spur Awd 4dr Sedan on 2040-cars

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Bentley's first EV will be an SUV arriving in 2025 on Audi Project Artemis platform

The first electric Bentley is going to be an SUV, and it will arrive in 2025, according to a report recently published by Car Magazine. It will also be an Audi collaboration, but this second bit of news comes as very little surprise given the companies live under the same roof in the VW Group. When Car questioned Bentley CEO Adrian Hallmark concerning the body style the first EV would take, Hallmark replied, “If you're not in SUVs, you're nowhere.” ThatÂ’s a pretty telling suggestion, and considering the BentaygaÂ’s success, Bentley is smart for heading down the crossover/SUV path first. The next question we have concerns the vitals of the car. What will underpin BentleyÂ’s first big, electric effort? It appears as though Project Artemis is the answer. WeÂ’ve seen rumors and reports flying around about this Audi-led project previously. ItÂ’s been suggested that both Bentley and Porsche would be taking a bite, and these previous reports are ringing true. “With our current cars, we had to get into the engineering largely after they [the platforms] had been done,” Hallmark told Car. “The difference now is that with Artemis we're right in there at the beginning, helping define it. We're not leading it, but we're going to be a beneficiary of it” Audi has previously said the Artemis project/platform would be ready for prime time by 2024, so Bentley clearly already has its foot in the door if it intends to release a car in 2025 on the same chassis.  “Looking forward to electrification, we're going to have closer synergies with Audi,” Hallmark said. “But we will continue to have strong relationships with both brands [Audi and Porsche], and we see this as an opportunity, not a risk. No question – we are electrifying. And we need to find the best way to fast-track that, and to lead the technology charge.” Advanced Level 2 autonomous tech is expected to land with this platform, and we suspect there will be many other enhancements made even above and beyond what is currently possible with the PPE platform (underpinning both the Taycan and E-Tron GT). Artemis is also a project designed to yield much larger electric vehicles than what the VW Group currently has to offer. That fits BentleyÂ’s vision of a flagship SUV, and itÂ’ll also work nicely with a giant Audi offering.

Bentley Bentayga may spawn sportier fastback version

In the past few years, Bentley has shown us two different conceptions about what its future might look like in: the SUV that started life as the EXP 9 F concept and has now entered production as the Bentayga, and the EXP 10 Speed 6 concept that previews a future sports coupe from the stoic British marque. The next step is an SUV that combines a little of each of them. According to Automotive News, engineers and designers in Crewe are currently laying the groundwork for a crossover that would blend the tall form of the Bentayga with the roofline of the Speed 6. The result would be similar in form, we'd imagine, to the likes of the BMW X6 and Mercedes GLE Coupe, only even further upscale. We wouldn't be surprised to see more changes than the roofline and tail section, either, with a sportier front end and more avant-garde headlights (like those we saw on the Speed 6 concept) giving it a sportier, less stodgy appearance all around – and maybe, just maybe, a different nameplate. CEO Wolfgang Durheimer wants to get the fastbacked Bentayga variant ready by 2018 or 2019 – right around the time that Rolls-Royce, Aston Martin, Maserati, and Lamborghini will be rolling out their debut crossovers. By that time, Bentley will have already have had the Bentayga on the market for two or three years, and wants to be ready to fight off the onslaught with something fresh. "Imagine the EXP 10 as an SUV. It doesn't look 'old Bentley, Durheimer told AN. "The Bentayga doesn't stop us from dreaming and looking down the road. The more success we have with it, the more we can take the best of it and run with it." Proceeding with the project will require Durheimer to get approval from the Volkswagen Group head office in Wolfsburg, but the business case seems like a slam dunk. The model would help Bentley (and VW) further capitalize on the $1 billion it already spent developing the Bentayga, following a successful business model laid out by rival BMW and which Germany's other automakers are quickly learning to emulate. This wouldn't be the first time he'd be seeking approval from Matthias Muller on such a project, either. Durheimer successfully ushered the Cayenne into production when he was head of R&D at Porsche and Muller was the brand's CEO.

New Bentley Flying Spur will be first Bentley with four-wheel steering

We just got a bundle of details about the new Bentley Flying Spur. Among them is, finally, an official reveal date of June 11. Besides that, the Flying Spur features the latest driving technologies from other current Bentleys, as well as a first for the brand. The company revealed that the luxury sedan will be the first Bentley to get four-wheel steering. It will operate similarly to other systems from other brands, in which the rear wheels will turn slightly in the opposite direction of the front wheels at low speed for maneuverability, and at high speed the rear wheels will turn slightly with the front wheels for extra stability. The Flying Spur also picks up features from other current Bentleys. It gets an all-wheel-drive system that now sends all its power to the rear wheels unless the front wheels start to slip. It will also have the Bentley Dynamic Ride suspension that includes anti-roll bars that are constantly adjusted via a 48-volt electrical system. And of course we get a little visual teaser of the car with a video. It seems to confirm the slightly more blunt look predicted by an earlier teaser. Stay tuned for the full reveal in a couple of weeks.