Why is Bentley about to be put under Audi’s control?
As you all know, the year 2020 has not been so good for almost every business corporation, the same has been the case for auto manufacturers. Due to the massive downtrend in the auto market, the German group Volkswagen has decided to implement some major changes in their underlying partnerships. Rumors are that Bugatti will be sold off to Rimac and Lamborghini, and Ducati’s fortune is yet to be decided.
Whereas Bentley showed great profit figures in the year 2019 due to the Bentayga and Continental GT. But the pandemic has declined its sales considerably, to the point that the company now needs help from someone within the Volkswagen group to bring them back on track.
Why Audi
The fate of the declining British company has been handed over to Markus Duesmann, a relatively new CEO of Audi. This 52-year-old mechanical engineer has been in charge at Audi since April 2020 and has been doing pretty well against the odds in the market.
Market Competency
Audi has planned to work together with Bentley to help them produce new models to compete against the luxury market sector. Roll Royce being backed up by BMW, and Maybach being backed up by Mercedes. Bentley up until now has been working under Porsche and its Bentayga shares a lot of the DNA with The Porsche’s Panamera. But now Bentley very well needed a market-leading company to kickstart their R&D, production, and efficiency numbers.
How will Audi be Helping?
Reports have led that Audi will be helping Bentley produce blueprints for its all-new crossover under the Artemis project. This crossover is expected to be superior to the Bentayga in terms of size and luxury. The Bentley’s crossover will be marketed to compete against the Rolls-Royce Cullinan and the Maybach.
Road to EVs
It is also expected that Audi will be assisting Bentley to producing electric versions of their models such as the Continental GT, Flying Spur, and Bentayga. It will be using the same premium electric platform (PPE), which lies beneath the Audi e-Tron and Porsche Tycan.
It is hoped that by 2023, Bentley will be producing a hybrid model for each of their models. And they are expected to get on the pure EV lineup by 2026, which will be debuted by the crossover they will be working on.