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Bentley Lost Money, Delayed Launch Of Continental GT Due To WLTP

In an interview with Automotive News Europe, chief executive officer Adrian Hallmark acknowledged that Bentley wasn’t prepared to switch from the New European Driving Cycle to the Worldwide Harmonized Light Vehicle Test Procedure. For an ultra-luxury automaker that’s controlled by the Volkswagen Group, this unexpected disclosure proves that some people haven’t done their job on time.
Bentley Continental GT 12 photos
Photo: Bentley
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Hallmark described the situation as “close to catastrophic,” adding that “we were not quick enough, unfortunately, to book capacity or prioritize our derivatives within some of the group processes to get them certified on time.” Considering the standard was finalized in 2015 and introduced in September 2018, Bentley doesn’t have an excuse for the trouble it got itself in.

A financial report further reveals Bentley lost €137 million in the first nine months of 2018, a disappointing result compared to the profit the automaker made in the same period last year. The document puts this loss down to the slow roll-out of the new Continental GT and fluctuations with the exchange rate.

Because the British manufacturer sources a lot of components for its cars and SUVs from the continent, there’s trouble from a financial standpoint when the pound sterling is weak compared to the euro. Worse still, global sales were down 11 percent in the first nine months of the year.

"This year is a conversion year to a better business model and next year you will start to see significant growth and a return to normality in terms of profit,” Hallmark told Automotive News Europe. On that note, the luxurious Continental GT isn’t the only Bentley affected by the Worldwide Harmonized Light Vehicle Test Procedure.

At the beginning of October 2018, the British motoring media reported that the Bentayga Diesel had been dropped from the lineup. A spokesman confirmed to Autocar that “the legislative conditions” are to blame, along with the “significant shift in attitude towards diesel-powered cars.”
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About the author: Mircea Panait
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After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well.
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