The upcoming Bentley electric SUV will enter new territory for the luxury brand in terms of powertrain, but not price. In an interview with The Drive at the 2026 New York Auto Show, Bentley president and CEO Mike Rocco said the price of the automaker’s first EV will be “comparable” to the Bentayga.
EV sales come with their own challenges, including lingering customer anxiety over charging infrastructure and range, compounded by the anti-EV stance of the current presidential administration. But Rocco believes the same fundamentals for success apply whether a new model is powered by gasoline or electricity.
“The car business is relatively easy. You need to have the right price point. You need to have a bank that’s properly providing residual values, because the majority [of cars] will be leased. And you have to have the right volume aspiration.”
When asked about pricing, Rocco said the final number hadn’t been settled, but that “it needs to be comparable” to the Bentayga. Bentley’s only SUV is also its bestselling model, which is why the EV will be an SUV as well, albeit an “urban” version smaller than the Bentayga. Rocco confirmed that it’s on track to launch in the third quarter of 2027, and will be teased in the third quarter of this year.
Rocco said that, in customer clinics in Miami and Los Angeles, 8 of 10 people said they would buy the electric SUV. Internationally, response from dealers at a showing in Lisbon was positive as well, Rocco added. The correct price point will be important for converting that goodwill into orders, Rocco said, noting that Rolls-Royce saw Spectre orders “evaporate” after a fairly positive launch. Bentayga-like pricing would likely make Bentley’s EV less expensive than the Rolls coupe.
Bentley was happy to let Rolls be first to market with an EV “because we wanted to see how things were going to settle,” Rocco said. It’s had plenty of time to do that. In 2022, Bentley said it would launch five EVs over five years beginning in 2025, on the way to an all-electric lineup by 2030. When it announced the “urban SUV” in 2024, Bentley said it would show the EV in 2026 ahead of a market launch in 2027. Now we’re apparently just getting a teaser instead of a full reveal, but the production timeline remains in effect.
But while Bentley was still saying that it would have an all-electric lineup by 2035 as recently as 2024, Rocco confirmed that the urban SUV will be the only Bentley EV for now. The decision to launch it isn’t just down to how far along it is in the development process, Rocco added.
Expect Bentley’s first EV to use the same version of the Volkswagen Group Premium Platform Electric (PPE) as the Porsche Cayenne Electric, with styling at least somewhat influenced by the EXP 15 concept. Spy shots show a blunt front end similar to that of the concept.
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