Bentley will stay with lithium ion battery tech for EV

LONDON -- Bentley said the batteries powering its first full-electric car, which will launch in 2025, will be an evolution of the current lithium ion type, rather than a new battery technology such as solid state.

"I don't see a step change for 2025," Matthias Rabe, the brand's engineering chief, said in an online presentation during which the ultraluxury brand outlined an electric-only future from 2030.

The lithium ion batteries used by Bentley's EV will be an improvement from current technology, Rabe said, citing better energy density, better power density, faster recharging and a lower cost.

"Battery technology is steadily evolving," he said.

After its first EV in 2025, Bentley will introduce a "family" of EVs, Rabe said.

This date is significant because that is when Bentley will be able to use a new EV architecture.

"2025 will be a big step because we will have access to a new platform which really makes us able to create a real Bentley with characteristics such as effortless driving with [interior] space," Rabe said.

Bentley has not disclosed which platform its EV will use. It is expected to be parent Volkswagen Group's new Premium Platform Electric (PPE), currently being developed by Porsche and Audi.

Bentley CEO Adrian Hallmark has previously said that the timeframe for launching the automaker's first EV would allow battery technology to catch up with the range requirements of its customers.

"We don't see a big step-up in [power density] until 2023-25," he told Automotive News Europe in December 2018.

Hallmark previously speculated that Bentley might be able to used solid state batteries from the VW Group backed developer QuantumScape, which has said it will form a joint venture with VW to produce solid state battery cells, starting in 2024, for VW and eventually for other automakers.

"They are close to first production," Hallmark told Automotive News Europe in December last year. "We are not guaranteed to go solid state, but that is already on the radar scope within the mid-2020s period," he said.

Hallmark said that the batteries are about 30 percent lighter, but with the same power as the current lithium ion packs.

Hallmark has previously hinted that the brand's first EV would have an SUV shape to allow for batteries to be positioned underfloor and give the interior space the brand requires, but with a smaller footprint than the brand's traditional coupes and sedans.

"That's not because we want to build a small car. We just don't want to waste space on the outside," Hallmark said in December.