Bentley’s timing and price hint

Bentley’s first electric sport utility vehicle is now pegged for the third quarter of 2027, with Bentley Americas chief executive Mike Rocco saying it should cost about as much as a Bentayga. (benzinga.com) Rocco said at the New York auto show last week that Bentley plans a teaser in the third quarter of 2026, then a full market launch roughly a year later. He described the vehicle as a smaller “urban” sport utility vehicle rather than a direct electric version of the current Bentayga. (benzinga.com) That price clue points to a six-figure launch. Kelley Blue Book lists the 2025 Bentayga at $207,050 to start, while Edmunds says the 2025 model starts around $210,000. (kbb.com, edmunds.com) Bentley has spent more than a year describing this model as its first all-electric car and “the world’s first luxury urban sport utility vehicle.” On its own site, the company says the vehicle will be revealed in 2026 and measure less than five meters long. (bentleymotors.com) The timing matters because Bentley has already pushed back its broader electric schedule. In November 2024, the company’s Beyond100+ plan moved its all-electric-only target to 2035 and kept plug-in hybrid models in the lineup longer. (bentleymedia.com, autocar.co.uk) Bentley’s own materials still say it aims to introduce a new plug-in hybrid or battery-electric model each year over the next decade, but Rocco told Benzinga this urban sport utility vehicle is the brand’s only full electric vehicle “for now.” That leaves Bentley relying on hybrids for most of its near-term transition. (bentleymedia.com, benzinga.com) The company is not pitching the new model as an entry-level Bentley. Rocco said Bentley chose a sport utility vehicle because the Bentayga is the brand’s only sport utility vehicle and its best seller, and he said customer clinics in Miami and Los Angeles showed eight in 10 participants were ready to buy an electric Bentley. (benzinga.com) Bentley says the vehicle is being designed and built in Crewe, England, with fast charging, long range, and city-focused driver assistance systems. The company has not yet published battery, range, or charging figures on its official consumer site. (bentleymotors.com) For now, the clearest signal is where Bentley wants this car to sit: below the ultra-high-priced electric Rolls-Royce Spectre, but still in the same neighborhood as a Bentayga. The teaser is due in the third quarter of 2026, and the real test comes when Bentley turns that pricing hint into an order book in 2027. (benzinga.com)