As Bentley celebrates a 100-year milestone, it’s looking to the future

Bentley is celebrating a century of sales, with the company having received its first order for a customer car back in 1921.

Development of the model – known as the Bentley 3-Litre – began in 1919, offering a significantly larger engine than that found in the cars of French competitor Bugatti.

As was customary at the time, Bentley provided the vehicle as a drivable chassis, devoid of interior and exterior panels, allowing the customer to choose their own coachbuilder and body style.

While the first vehicle ordered was by wealthy Londoner Noel van Raalte, the first delivery of a customer car went to Ivor Llewellyn, who bought production chassis number three – and remains the oldest known surviving production Bentley in the world today.

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But while the luxury car company is celebrating its long history, Bentley recently renewed its carbon-neutrality certification for its headquarters and operations facility in Crewe, UK.

The organisation has reduced its carbon off-sets by 81 per cent since it was first certified in 2019, with the aim of becoming end-to-end carbon neutral by 2030.

The announcement of its green credentials may not be coincidental, with Bentley – along with the rest of the Volkswagen Group family – choosing not to sign the Glasgow Declaration at COP26, which commits to zero-emissions vehicles by 2040.

Only six major carmakers joined the pledge, along with NSW, Victoria, South Australia, and the ACT.

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Curiously, Bentley will actually meet the conditions a decade early, having committed a year ago to not selling any combustion-engined cars after 2030.

“Over the last two decades Bentley has taken a pioneering approach to sustainable entrepreneurship; creating a high quality, low environmental-impact, highly efficient production facility here in Crewe,” Peter Bosch, member of the board for manufacturing, said.

“We are committed to reducing off-setting and our team is continually implementing great solutions to reduce our impact year-on-year. Our ultimate aim is to create a net climate positive manufacturing footprint by 2030.”