Bentley Motors has celebrated the 200,000th luxury car built in the company’s illustrious 100-year-plus history. The Bentayga Hybrid, destined for a Chinese customer, met the oldest surviving Bentley, EXP 2, as it rolled off the production line. This crowns an extraordinary 20-year period in which the success driven by modern day models such as the Continental GT and Bentayga has truly changed the face of Bentley Motors.
The manufacturing milestone is even more remarkable when considered that the 200,000th car is the latest in 155,582 vehicles built at Crewe since 2003—the breakthrough year the Continental GT was originally launched as the first model of the modern Bentley era. Today, Bentley is building 85 cars per day, the same output in one month two decades ago.
In comparison to Bentley’s modern era, in the year of Bentley’s first existence, 1919, through to 2002, the company built 44,418 luxury cars—38,933 of them in Crewe. Among that total were many iconic models of their time, including the Bentley Blower, the R-Type Continental, Mulsanne, Arnage, and Azure.
A major investment program at the Crewe factory since 2003 has gone hand-in-hand with the success of the Bentley Continental GT, the definitive luxury Grand Tourer. The 80,000th individual, made-to-order example was built in January this year.
The success of the Continental GT has been mirrored by the Bentayga. Launched in 2015, the fastest SUV in the world has reached its 25,000th production landmark. It is expected that the Bentayga could surpass total sales of the Continental GT within a decade and become the biggest selling Bentley model in history.
Since 2005, the company has also built 40,000 examples of the Flying Spur.
Looking to the future, Bentley aims to be end-to-end carbon neutral by 2030, with the Crewe factory climate positive thereafter. Bentley will also move to full electrification – PHEV or BEV only – by 2026, then switch the entire model range to battery electric vehicles by 2030.
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