How to take Bentley to the next level – Frank-Steffen Walliser, CEO
The father of the Porsche 918 Spyder now leads Bentley. His plan involves exploring the performance limits of the Continental GT...
Like many car manufacturers, Bentley is currently in the process of rewriting its electrification strategy, its hand forced by the glacial take-up of high-end electric vehicles by those with the credit line to buy such cars. It turns out customers who can afford to shop in Pyms Lane care more for V8s than they do battery cells and e-motors in their Bentley, and would rather buy a Renault 5 to tick their tax-efficient EV box.
As incoming CEO of Bentley, Frank-Steffen Walliser has the task of establishing what Bentley’s product mix will look like in terms of internal combustion and batteries. Twelve months after replacing Adrian Hallmark, who departed for Aston Martin in the summer of 2024, Walliser’s outlook for Bentley is becoming clearer, structured around the recently launched plug-in hybrid Continental GT and Flying Spur, and the company’s first all-electric vehicle, which is heading for showrooms in 2027. We caught up with Walliser at the Montana launch of the new Bentayga Speed to understand his emerging vision.
‘The Continental GT has more bandwidth for us to explore,’ says the engineer who joined Porsche in 1995 and worked his way through a mix of motorsport and product roles, including delivering the 918 Spyder and being responsible for the 911 and 718 models from 2019. ‘We can go further to the edges with the GT, to both extremes – luxury and performance, especially with performance. There is more we can offer. I don’t mean to offer the same level of models as the 911, but certainly more variety to bring in more customers, not move them around from model to model.’ Continental GT Dakar anyone?
Walliser is also a supporter of Bentley creating low-volume specials such as the Batur and Bacalar. ‘These models demonstrate that customers will pay £2million-plus for a Bentley, but this doesn’t mean we always need to have a halo car per se.’ When asked what such a model could be, he says: ‘Well, there are a lot of mid-engined halo cars in the market already. Are there enough buyers for them? I’m not so sure. Anything we do needs to have a demand and be true to what you would expect from Bentley.’ That’s luxury and performance, then, not hyped-up hypercars.
Despite success on the racetrack being a key thread to Bentley’s narrative for over a century, the company has been absent from motorsport since the Continental GT3 programme ended in 2020. In his former role in Stuttgart, Porsche’s motorsport strategy was defined and executed by Walliser, but at Bentley it’s a more nuanced decision that needs to be made. ‘For motorsport to work it needs to be a long-term commitment and has to add to the brand in terms of what you are doing today and where you are going tomorrow. And it has to add to the business.
At Porsche, motorsport was linked to everything we did, certainly the 911, but you have to be careful because you can do more damage to your business than good due to influences outside of your control.’ Walliser was responsible for Porsche’s 911 GTE entries at Le Mans in 2016 when they fell victim to the generous Balance of Performance advantage handed to Ford when it returned with its third-generation GT on the 50th anniversary of the GT40’s one-two-three victory.
Bentley is a very different company to Porsche. Part of the same VW Group behemoth maybe, but in terms of size, market positioning and products the two couldn’t be further apart. Speaking to Walliser there’s a sense that the British brand quietly goes about its business. ‘The company was in a much better position than I expected. I knew it was performing strongly – it had a very good product investment and investment in Crewe – and the Beyond100+ strategy is very solid.
‘But it’s a British company, so it was performing much stronger than I and others outside thought. It’s not very British to show confidence. But Bentley is strong. The craftspeople we employ are so talented.’
Bentley’s financial performance has seen it post six consecutive years of profit, despite both revenue and operating profit being down in 2023 and 2024. Yet as with any brand that has a small product portfolio, when a new model is introduced, the one it replaces is phased out, leaving a sales gap. In 2023 the iconic W12 engine was wound down; in 2024 the Continental GT – a car which, along with the Flying Spur saloon, is responsible for over 70 per cent of all Bentley sales – was replaced, the new ‘Ultra Performance Hybrid’ Speed models superceding the previous pure-V8 cars. This year will see the portfolio back to full strength, with the GT and Spur now also available with lower-powered (still 671bhp) plug-in hybrid powertrains, and the Bentayga, now in its tenth year, having the 641bhp Bentayga Speed added to its line-up.
Under Walliser’s watch the company’s first fully electric vehicle will also be launched. A ‘luxury urban SUV’, it will be built at Pyms Lane in building A1, the oldest on the site, which has been transformed into a state-of-the-art production facility. The first cars will come down the line in 2027. ‘The investment that has been made in Crewe provides everyone who works there with the best facilities in the industry,’ says Walliser.
This development means the Bentley team continues to grow, but the staff numbers remain around 5000, which some will consider a vast number for the 10,600 cars Bentley delivered in 2024. However, for someone who was at Porsche for 30 years and was at the core of its growth, Walliser is grateful for the agility and speed of decision-making he now enjoys. ‘I can meet with my teams, we can make a decision in one meeting and very quickly the actions have been implemented. There are many departments within other car manufacturers that employ more people than Bentley does in total. This agility and quick decision-making is really important for us as engineers, designers, sales and marketing, but also for our customers when they approach us with ideas and wishes.’
> Bentley EXP 15 looks deep into Crewe's electric future
Some of those wishes are very much in line with Bentley’s own. Production will remain in the UK: ‘It’s the DNA of the brand. It’s what customers are buying: a Bentley has to be made in Crewe.’ And for as long as legislation allows, internal combustion engines will be offered in new Bentleys, but maybe not in every market. ‘Electrification of our cars remains in our plans, with new BEV and PHEV models launched between now and 2035. Our first BEV will be a new model, not a replacement of an existing product.’ V8s will remain, possibly in something of a different size too, but Bentley won’t make its own engines: ‘It never has, and hybrids bring the performance gains our customers want. They always want more!’
Frank Walliser takes on a Bentley that, under his predecessor’s leadership, has returned strong results to allow it to grow and set its own path without having to chase volume (although more sales are always welcome). With a newly minted product line, new hybrid powertrains and a manufacturing facility that wants for very little, the opportunities for the company are there to be exploited. Under Walliser’s leadership Porsche’s products, specifically the 911, flourished; don’t bet against the same happening with Bentley’s model line-up, too.
