Bentley delays all-EV plan amid changing market conditions, vehicle development challenges

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Bentley Motors is pushing back its plans to exclusively offer all-electric vehicles by the end of this decade due to changing market conditions and a delay in its first EV. CEO Adrian Hallmark said the famed British luxury carmaker remains committed to carbon neutrality and exclusively offering EVs, but it now plans to do so a couple of years later. Bentley will continue offering plug-in hybrids alongside BEVs, or battery electric vehicles, past its previous target of 2030, Hallmark said. "Whether we deliver all the BEVs by 2031 or not, we still may have some hybrids that we wouldn't have had post-2030," he said during a media briefing. "But not for 10 years, maybe just for a couple of years as we run them out." Bentley is among a growing number of automakers to change, delay or cancel ambitious EV plans as global adoption grows slower than many expected. Bentley's first EV was expected to be released next year, followed by one new all-electric model each year as part of a plan to invest $3.4 billion by 2030. The company now expects its first EV to be released in 2026, pushing back the release of the subsequent vehicles as well.