Bentley to cut jobs ahead of long-delayed EV rollout

<p>British luxury automaker Bentley Motors <a href="https://www.bentleymedia.com/en/newsitem/1784-bentley-marks-seventh-consecutive-year-of-profitability-while-continuing-site-transformation">posted its seventh consecutive year</a> of profitability on Tuesday, but uncertain times mean the British luxury automaker is cutting jobs ahead of its belated electric future.</p>
<p>Bentley said layoffs could hit 275 positions, or 10% of its non-factory employees. Bentley framed the cuts as an efficiency measure tied to its next phase of growth, but it's a significant move for the small British company that’s part of the Volkswagen Group (<a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/VWAGY/">VWAGY</a>).</p>
<p>“We are making some difficult decisions to ensure the long-term competitiveness of the business, including an organisational adjustment,” Bentley CEO Frank-Steffen Walliser said in a statement.</p>
<p>Customer deliveries fell 5% during the year, driven largely by continued market weakness in China. Despite this, Bentley still reported an operating profit of 216 million euros ($247.8 million) on revenue of 2.6 billion euros ($2.98 billion) for 2025, with an operating return on sales (a measure of profit margin) of 8.3%.</p>
<p>Bentley’s ability to squeeze more revenue per vehicle through personalization and higher trims, like its S variants, helped boost margins. Revenue fell 1%, but stronger pricing, model mix, and sustained growth in bespoke Mulliner demand helped offset lower volumes.</p>
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<p>Walliser flagged weakness in China and the overall high-end consumer market to <a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/news/bentley-ceo-still-sees-uncertainty-in-the-luxury-market-but-is-bullish-on-his-new-performance-model-143609639.html">Yahoo Finance</a> in November, when he described the luxury market as still mired in “uncertainty” — particularly in the US and Europe, but especially in China.</p>
<p>Bentley’s decision to reduce headcount was labeled a way to ensure “long-term competitiveness" of the business, but it comes as the company begins the next phase of its EV rollout.</p>
<p>Under its Beyond100+ strategy, Bentley had committed to being exclusively electric by 2030, a target that was pushed back to 2035, and then the company pivoted, stating it would still <a href="https://www.bentleymedia.com/en/newsitem/1648">sell plug-in hybrids alongside EVs beyond that timeframe</a>.</p>
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<p>While the company remains on track to launch its first EV next year, <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/359ff74f-f806-4bbf-873c-0a0c1277d8dd">Walliser noted</a> it had “a lot of work to do” to convince its customers to go full EV.</p>
<p>Bentley’s Volkswagen Group stablemate Lamborghini is also finding that its owners are shunning EVs in the rarefied air of ultraluxury automobiles.</p>
<p>Lamborghini CEO Stephan Winkelmann <a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/news/lamborghini-kills-off-luxury-ev-as-ceo-says-demand-close-to-zero-180101733.html">confirmed in February</a> that the Italian brand was killing off its Lanzador EV, initially slated for a 2028 release but pushed back numerous times.</p>