Yahoo Autos The Bentley Continental Plug-In Hybrid Has Only One Real Rival
The strangest thing about the new Bentley Continental GT hybrid seen here isn’t so much that it’s a plug-in hybrid, or that it’s extremely quick, or that its curb weight pushing perilously close to 3 tons, or even that the company insists on covering it with camouflage wrap that does almost nothing to disguise it.
The strangest thing about this new so-called fourth-generation Continental GT hybrid is its steering. I had the chance to drive a quick couple of laps at a racetrack near Barcelona, Spain in the prototype and nothing about the car surprised but for the light and delicate steering. By all rights, it should not feel so supple and accurate. As Continental GTs have been since the beginning, this fourth generation is available only with all-wheel drive. And thanks in large part to a new 25.9-kWh battery back that hogs much of the rear trunk room (no surprise that Bentley has no listed trunk space for the new model), the Continental GT Speed coupe will tip the scales at roughly 5500 pounds. According to a company engineer, that’s up roughly 440 pounds compared to the W-12-powered Speed that it replaces. Hefty curb weight and the driven front wheels typically don’t aid in producing good steering. But here we are.
And yes, it’s quick. With a combined 771 hp (591 from the familiar 4.0-liter twin-turbo V-8 and 188 from the electric engine), Bentley says the hybrid punches its way to 60 mph in 3.1 seconds, a sizable and also probably imperceptible 0.4 seconds quicker than the old W-12. Both the hybrid and the now-dead W-12 versions top out at 208 mph says Bentley, which seems way more than sufficient.
Big brakes, the same size as those of last year’s model do an admirable job of hauling this luxury train to a halt. And they operate smoothly and unobtrusively. Theoretically, these brakes would wither after a few laps of the rather beautiful Parcmotor Castelloli. I was allowed only two hot laps and am assuming that that’s two more than most Continental GT owners will ever do. So, let’s say that the massive brakes (with 10-piston calipers up front!) are also more than sufficient.
Bentley recommended that my warm-up lap be done in the default “Bentley” mode. It’s a hybrid mode that prioritizes electric power by not firing the gas engine until heavy acceleration is requested. It’s not particularly swift under electric power only, but the system will refrain from firing the gas engine until the driver pushes the accelerator pedal about 75 percent to the floor (or up to almost 100 mph). That’s good if the goal is to make a quiet getaway that is also lengthy and moderately quick. Bentley says the EV-only range is about 50 miles, but still, it’s presumably good for the regulatory emissions and economy testing that will be carried out in this default mode. When the gas engine finally fires, it does so abruptly with a big swell of acceleration. There are three other modes one could set the car in, and as an owner, I would likely be doing so every time I started my Bentley.
The suspension setup remains fundamentally the same as the previous Continental: double wishbone front and multilink rear with air springs all around and active antiroll bars. But the dampers and air springs are new and said to offer a great spread between sport and comfort suspension modes. A smooth racetrack doesn’t reveal much about ride quality so a proper assessment will wait until a production version arrives on real roads.
The new hybrid, which should start reaching customers right around the beginning of 2025, seems like a brilliant car. Just as all the Continental GTs before it were. A continent-swallowing, high-speed luxury automobile with a veneer of olde-world charm covering the best technology that the VW Group can muster.
That’s been a winning combination since the model arrived to re-invent the company in 2003. In 1998, the year Volkswagen took over the British marque, Bentley sold only 414 cars. By early 2025, Bentley expects to sell its 100,000th Continental GT. Along the way, the coupe and convertible came to define what a modern luxury GT is, not just for Bentley, but for the industry.
And the new version will very likely protect that position. In fact, the only real direct competition for the new GT Speed hybrid would be a simpler, lighter V-8-powered non-hybrid version of the same car. It was the better choice than the old W-12 version when the two sold side-by-side. But that car is being phased out. The company will sell an “Edition 8” version for a while. Once those are sold out all Continental GTs will be plug-in hybrids like the one driven here.
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