Biofuel Bentley set for Geneva debut

Bentley is set to showcase its greenie-friendly nous at March's Geneva motor show via a biofuel-powered Continental GT that will be the marque's fastest, most powerful car to date.

The British marque is yet to announce what the alternative-fuel Conti will be known as, and no technical info has been released for now. All we have to go on is this teaser shot, which provides a shadowy glimpse of the vehicle's face.

The concept's mesh grilles aren't too dissimilar to those on the Continental GT Speed, but they're painted black on the biofuel car. Also unique to it are blacked-out headlight bezels and a pair of bonnet vents (we're assuming these actually help extract heat from the engine bay, rather than being merely cosmetic add-ons).

The existing Continental GT Speed serves up meaty outputs of 449kW and 750Nm, so we might venture a guess and suggest the biofuelled Bentley will ramp up peak power closer to the 500kW mark.

It's not a bolt from the blue, as Bentley used last year's Geneva show to announce its intention to introduce renewable fuels -- primarily ethanol -- across the entire Bentley range by 2012.

Bentley said its renewable fuel solution would be based around the incorporation of 'FlexFuel' powertrains -- engines that can use either biofuel or petrol -- to help reduce the brand's carbon footprint.

The company followed up at this year's Detroit motor show by reaffirming its commitment to address CO2 emissions via a document titled Bentley and the Future of Biofuels. 

The document highlights how biofuels can be one solution to "tackle the issues of climate change and energy security".

In the company's own words: "Bentley and the Future of Biofuels illustrates that biofuels can provide a secure, sustainable fuel, which has little impact on natural habitats and global food prices, and importantly, emits significantly less CO2 than petrol-powered cars."

The report also highlights how biofuel projects can bring investment to emerging and rural economies and concludes by calling for cooperation between governments, biofuel producers, NGOs and automotive manufacturers so that the benefits of biofuels can be realised on a global scale.

Interestingly, some analysts have suggested that since Bentley's entire model range is turbocharged, they would lend themselves well to running on high-octane ethanol.