No, it’s not a Pride flag, it’s Bentley’s upcoming colorful paint job, which will be completed next year
- The new paint shop is scheduled to open in 2025 and will allow Bentley to paint vehicles in almost 100 different colors.
- For Bentley, whose Mulliner division grew by 43 percent last year, customization is becoming increasingly important.
- The 134,000 square foot facility will house 370 employees in its four-story office space.
It’s hard to look at a rainbow these days and not think of the fun of the Pride parade, but Bentley’s upcoming livery will be painted in different colors to celebrate the customization possible inside.
Bentley’s production manager Andreas Lehe and finance chief Jan-Henrik Lafrentz today laid the foundation stone for the colorful facility, which is scheduled to be completed in 2025. Once operational, the workshop will be able to paint vehicles in almost 100 different shades to ensure customers get exactly the shade they want.
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In addition, the new building will have four floors of office space and employ up to 370 people. Bentley says the new 12,460 square meter building will be built as part of a £2.5 billion ($3.13 billion at current exchange rates) investment in future products at its Pyms Lane factory in Crewe.
With the factory, Bentley wants to “set a new benchmark for next-generation digital, flexible and high-quality manufacturing processes.” This flexibility will be important for the automaker, whose in-house customizing department, Mulliner, has grown in importance in recent years.
Although Bentley’s sales were down overall in 2023, the brand reported that more customers than ever chose to personalize their vehicle using its customization department. Mulliner can offer a staggering 46 billion different configurations across the automaker’s standard vehicle lineup.
Like the rest of Bentley’s headquarters, the new paint shop will be carbon neutral and will play an important role in the production process as Bentley electrifies. Four years ago, the British automaker announced plans to go all-electric by 2030, but last month it said it had delayed the launch of its first electric vehicle.
It was originally scheduled to launch in 2025, but slower-than-expected growth in the electric vehicle market led Bentley to postpone the launch of its first electric vehicle until 2026. The vehicle was sold a year later.
“The groundbreaking of this new, state-of-the-art building is a milestone and supports our goal of establishing a benchmark position in new innovative technologies, capabilities and facilities to enable a truly digital, highly flexible scale of luxury car manufacturing,” said Lehe. “As we simultaneously modernize our site, this is clear evidence of our ambition and long-term commitment to Crewe as we make Bentley the market leader in sustainable luxury mobility.”
