Bentley goes plug-in

British ultra-luxury car-maker Bentley is promising to deliver guilt-free opulence when it reveals its Mulsanne-based Bentley Hybrid Concept at the Beijing motor show on April 20.

With plug-in hybrid power, a lithium-ion battery pack under the boot floor and its current 6.75-litre twin-turbo V8 up front, Bentley is projecting that the concept car will have 25 per cent more power than the standard Mulsanne with 75 per cent fewer CO2 emissions.

The technology, which will reach its first production Bentley in the upcoming SUV in 2017, means the Bentley Hybrid Concept will have NEDC CO2 emissions of just 118g/km.

It also means it will lift its power profile from the current Mulsanne’s crunching 377kW of low-revving urge to an astonishing 471kW, which should see the 5.6-metre long Bentley sink its 0-100km/h time from 5.3 seconds to something in the high four-second bracket.

The Mulsanne is one of the most decadent petrol motors on the market today, with 1020Nm of torque from the low-compression (7.8:1) V8 motor, which currently emits 393g/km of CO2 and uses 16.9L/100km on the combined cycle.

It’s a far more fearsome environmental prospect in town, though, where it logs 25.3L/100km on the urban cycle, a figure that is likely to be heavily assailed by its new, hybridized powertrain.

The Bentley Hybrid Concept, like the SUV that follows it, will be capable of covering 50km on pure electric power, so its urban fuel consumption figure could drop as low as 5.0L/100km, while its combined figure is likely to slump to less than 4.0L/100km.

And, just like that, the scourge of the atmosphere will become a relative cleaner compared to even stablemates like the A-segment Volkswagen Polo with a standard petrol engine.

It will still use an eight-speed automatic transmission to commit its power to the rear wheels and will still likely reach the same top speed of 296km/h.

One chink in the armour of the plug-in hybrid Bentley is weight. The current Mulsanne is an astonishing 2685kg, and that’s a dry weight before it carries a litre of fuel. Most plug-in hybrid systems add at least 150kg to the system. Even the Volkswagen Golf plug-in hybrid adds 125kg just for the lithium-ion battery pack, before it even starts fitting an electric motor to drive the transmission or a computer to run it.

Indications are that the Bentley Hybrid Concept, with much more mass to move in urban conditions and needing a far larger battery pack than the Golf could weigh more than 2900kg.

Bentley has given the Hybrid Concept plenty of visual demarcations to the Mulsanne, with its “electric veins” being highlighted by copper elements around the car. Its badges, interior inserts, instrument panel, stitching and even its brake callipers are painted in copper.

“There is no doubt that plug-in hybrid technology is true to Bentley’s values of outstanding luxury and effortless performance,” Bentley Chairman, Dr Wolfgang Schreiber, said.

“Combining our renowned engines with electric power reinforces and enhances both principles, and so we will gradually introduce this powertrain across our model range. By the end of the decade, at least 90 per cent of our production will be available as a plug-in hybrid.”