The base car will have a hybrid 6, and there will be a hybrid V8 option. I think the current gen3 cars with the W12 and the V8 turbo are going to retain their values very well. Plus the new ones will all be PHEVs, do I really want to plug my Bentley at home? The weight increases on these new models are going to be high. And look at the photos that show the complexity of the engine, it isn't even recognizable as an car engine anymore.

https://www.carscoops.com/2024/05/bentley-axes-v8-option-for-continental-and-flying-spur-in-europe/

 

Why does Chuck edit posts to kill the referenced links? Makes absolutely no sense why he does this other than to cause inconvenience to forum visitors.

 

I am not sure how the 50 mile EV range is going to be a big selling point. There is something about the W12 rumble that I will never want to trade away.

 

The W12 is gone of course. Notice how they plan to keep the V8 in the "base" model. Sure, it makes less HP, but as you say - who really wants a Bentley with a 50 mile electric range and a V6? My bet is - very few people.

 

In some countries it might well be. When my car was new, the taxes on it in Finland were the equivalent of US$421,300 on top of its original US$370,000 purchase price at the time, more than doubling the sticker price. Had it been an PHEV they would've been just a few thousands of dollars on top of VAT.

Yeah, politics, I know. The price is completely artificial and the government makes far more money from the sales than the whole supply chain that actually manufactures the car, but this is how they do it. Even second hand imports are taxed the same way in proportion to their "market value" so there's no way around it - my personal income tax rate is close to 60% and the last thing I want to do is to pay more taxes when I buy a car, so even though I might have been able to stretch for a new Flying Spur I deliberately chose mine by optimizing (minimizing) the car tax.

I hate to say it but there's a good chance there's a V8 PHEV Bentley in my future at some point, because of this.