British car manufacturer Bentley is betting big on bio-fuel gasoline to reduce emission. Interestingly, the luxury carmaker will manufacture a combustion engine for the next nine years and produce BEV by 2030, unlike other carmakers who are betting on electric vehicle technology.
The carmaker has launched a new sustainability initiative, with the announcement of a renewable fuels research and development programme spearheaded by the most extreme road-car-based Bentley in its 101-year history.
The Continental GT3 Pikes Peak will be the first competition Bentley to run on renewable fuel, ahead of a goal to offer sustainable fuels to Bentley’s customers around the world.
The modified Continental GT3 racer, based on Bentley’s race and championship-winning car, will power its way through the 12.42-mile course running on biofuel-based gasoline.
Various blends of fuels are currently being tested and evaluated, with possible Greenhouse Gas (GHG) reductions of up to 85% over standard fossil fuel.
This first step marks the start of a more extended programme that will investigate both biofuels and e-fuels for their potential to power the Bentleys of past and present in a sustainable way.
Bentley’s ambitious and transformational Beyond100 programme will see the brand become the world’s leading sustainable luxury mobility company, with the entire Bentley model range offered with Hybrid variants by 2023 ahead of Bentley being BEV-only by 2030.
The adoption of renewable fuel for this project signals the start of Bentley’s long-term ambition, initiating a research and development programme that aims to offer renewable fuels to Bentley customers in parallel to its electrification programme.
This two-strand strategy is set to maximise the pace of Bentley’s progress towards outright carbon neutrality as part of its Beyond100 journey.
With more than 80% of all Bentleys ever built still on the road, a genuinely sustainable and customer-facing renewable fuel offering will allow customers to enjoy their current and classic Bentleys responsibly for years to come.
Bentley’s Member of the Board for Engineering, Dr Matthias Rabe, said “We are delighted to be returning to Pikes Peak for a third time – now powered by renewable fuel, as the launch project for another new element of our Beyond100 programme. Our powertrain engineers are already researching biofuels and e-fuels for use by our customers alongside our electrification programme – with intermediate steps of adopting renewable fuels at the factory in Crewe and our company fleet. In the meantime, the Continental GT3 Pikes Peak will show that renewable fuels can allow motorsport to continue in a responsible way, and hopefully, it will capture the third and final record in our triple crown.”
Bentley’s pinnacle Pikes Peak project is being run in conjunction with British Continental GT3 customer team Fastr, who have successfully campaigned their Bentley race car in time attack competitions across the country.