We take a tour of the Bentley factory!

Electrification, like it or not, is round the corner. For Bentley it starts with hybridisation on the new Continental GT ramping up the twin-turbo V8 to 771bhp. And that neatly – and perhaps sadly for petrolheads – coincides with the last of the W12 engines to roll out of Crewe. Not without reason then that our tour of Bentley’s facilities side-stepped any talk of combustion engines, or even manufacturing per se, to focus instead on heritage and craftsmanship. That, we are told, is the attraction of a super-luxury car or SUV – not mass production by hundreds of robots, but hand-crafted by artisans who’ve not only been in the trade for decades but are passing on these increasingly rare skills down, within their families. Strolling through the wood shop we were introduced to a young English man interning under the watchful gaze of his father. Yes, it is 2024, and Bentley still has a wood shop! In fact, this section operates round the clock whereas the main car assembly section operates only one shift. Anybody can manufacture cars. Bentley point out that their cars are bespoke, tailored and more painstakingly put together than even what Rolls-Royce does.

Bentley is the only car factory I have been to where the seats are all done in-house, rather than coming in from a supplier. Hides of all colours – shocking pink, blazing yellow, lurid green, the customer gets whatever the customer wants despite Bentley’s insistence of ‘good taste’ – are sourced from Scandinavian farms where there are no barbed wires or nasty insects to scar the hides. 8 to 10 hides are used to swathe the insides of a Continental GT, 15 to 17 for a Bentayga – all inspected in-house by specialists, laser-cut to ensure minimal wastage, and pieced together by ladies revving the spindles off row upon row of sewing machines. Opt for Bentley’s unique cross stitching and the senior-most ladies come into action, spectacles on their nose, cross- stitch applied by hand. Just looking at it is exhausting, and that’s where you appreciate the depth and substance to all this hand-crafting business!

The Mulliner Opulence edition pictured on these pages is an example of just how unique your Bentley can be. The first bespoke edition crafted for India at Mulliner, Bentley’s in-house personalisation and bespoke department, it is claimed to have, ‘a harmonious fusion of power, grace and natural beauty, with colours and materials featuring the Indian national colours of green and orange.’ Commissioned by Exclusive Motors, Bentley’s Indian importer operating three facilities in New Delhi, Mumbai and Hyderabad, the Opulence edition is limited to one Continental GT Speed, one Flying Spur Speed and three Bentayga EWB Azure models – all five presumably sold out before even arriving for the reveal at the Bharat Mandapam in Delhi. All sport a Scarab Green exterior, a colour first created for the Bacalar, while the orange and green of the tri-colour carry with upholstery of Mandarin main hide and Cumbrian Green secondary hide. Close collaboration between Bentley Mumbai and the Mulliner team led to the hand-drawn chrome motif of wild horses and mountain peaks on the mirror-like Piano veneer. Quizzed on its Indian significance, Bentley presented us with the press release that tells us, ‘Wild horses and mountain peaks are traditional symbols of good luck and prosperity, as per Indian feng shui.’

Keeping aside the fact that south of the Himalayas we employ vaastu, were I creating the India special I would have added Bentley’s new and uniquely Indian option – stone veneer. Sourced from stone mines in Rajasthan this 0.1 micron thick wafer of actual stone is applied and treated in the same painstaking manner as the traditional wood finishes, or the more technical carbonfibre or turned aluminium options.

Which begs the question, do Indian buyers really care about all this? You’ll be surprised! In the recent auction of the final W12-engined Bentleys, two of the three models were bought by an Indian customer. The GT C convertible slipped away to America, else all three final-edition W12s would have found a home – in Chennai! And each of those were auctioned for 1 million British pounds (Rs`10 crore, to which you can add approximately 160 per cent in customs duties and local taxes).

It is this wealth, and the post-Covid willingness to spend it, that has put India on the super-luxury maps. Bentley Motors board member and acting CEO Jan-Henrik Lafrentz tell us, “We are too small,” in reference to Indian volumes. India has in fact been identified as, “the biggest growth market,” and plans are afoot to transition from the importer arrangement to bringing Bentley India operations under the Skoda-Volkswagen Group umbrella to harness synergies, particularly in terms of service, parts availability, warehousing, and homologation.

In India both Porsche and Lamborghini operate under the Group umbrella and it is the latter’s record-breaking sales numbers, 103 units in 2023, that is prompting the organisational restructure to raise brand awareness. SUVs are clearly the hot ticket with majority of Lamborghinis sold being the Urus super-SUV. The growth at Porsche India, 17 per cent in 2023 to clock 914 new vehicles, was also driven by the Cayenne and Macan. Clearly there is plenty of headroom for Bentley which sold 80 cars in India last year, 60 per cent of which were the Bentayga SUV, which starts at Rs`6 crore for the extended wheelbase. Bentley say the Flying Spur too has tremendous potential, the long wheelbase luxury car, height-adjustable air suspension, and focus on back seat luxury being perfectly suited to the needs of affluent Indian customers and reality of Indian roads. And finally there will be a fourth dealership in South India which should be operational well before Bentley succumbs to the inevitable and goes electric.