Bentley’s first EV SUV plan
Bentley confirmed an electrified, urban SUV that it plans to launch as its first full EV in Q3 2027 and said pricing is expected to sit in the neighborhood of the current Bentayga, according to Bentley Americas CEO Mike Rocco. (benzinga.com) (Notes from the New York Auto Show in the last 48 hours included that the model will be teased later in 2026 ahead of the 2027 launch window.) (benzinga.com)
Bentley is moving its first fully electric model to the center of its lineup: a smaller sport utility vehicle due in the third quarter of 2027. (bentleymedia.com) (thedrive.com) Bentley Americas chief executive Mike Rocco said at the 2026 New York Auto Show that the vehicle’s price should be “comparable” to the Bentayga, Bentley’s current sport utility vehicle and bestselling model. The Drive reported the company plans to tease the model in the third quarter of 2026. (thedrive.com) (benzinga.com) Bentley first described the vehicle in November 2024 as the “world’s first true Luxury Urban SUV” and said it would be designed, developed and built at its Crewe headquarters in England. In November 2025, Bentley said deliveries would begin in 2027 and described the model as less than five meters long. (bentleymedia.com 1) (bentleymedia.com 2) The plan marks another revision to Bentley’s electric timetable. In 2022, the company said it would launch five electric vehicles in five years starting in 2025 and go all-electric by 2030, but by late 2024 it had pushed the full-electric target to 2035. (thedrive.com) (bentleymedia.com) By November 2025, Bentley had gone further and said gasoline and plug-in hybrid models could continue beyond 2035, while the urban sport utility vehicle remained its only confirmed battery-electric model. Chairman and chief executive Frank-Steffen Walliser said the company was adjusting to “economic, market and legislative” conditions and to customer demand for plug-in hybrids. (bentleymedia.com) (thedrive.com) Bentley is still investing in the factory shift. In February 2025, it opened an 8,000-square-meter Excellence Centre for Quality and Launch in Crewe, with a proving ground, mini assembly line and laboratory built around the first battery-electric Bentley. (bentleymedia.com) Rocco said customer clinics in Miami and Los Angeles found that 8 in 10 Bentley owners said they were ready for the electric sport utility vehicle, and he said dealers who saw it in Lisbon responded positively. He also said pricing and lease economics would be critical, because most of these vehicles are expected to be leased. (thedrive.com) That price anchor points to Bentley’s existing sport utility business. Third-party pricing trackers cited by Benzinga and Edmunds put the current Bentayga’s starting price a little above $200,000 in the United States, before options and higher trims push it further upmarket. (benzinga.com) (edmunds.com) For now, Bentley is not replacing the Bentayga with an electric twin. It is adding a smaller electric sport utility vehicle beside it, then using the next 18 months to show buyers what an electric Bentley looks like before orders open in 2027. (bentleymedia.com) (thedrive.com)
