- The EPA has released the luxury Bentley Bentayga SUV’s fuel-economy numbers, and the plug-in hybrid does well when the battery is full but not so much when depleted.
- With a full battery, the EPA scores the Bentayga hybrid, which is powered by a turbocharged 3.0-liter V-6 paired with an electric motor, at 45 MPGe combined.
- But, after its 18-mile electric range is used up, the results get much less impressive, including a 21-mpg EPA highway figure that’s worse than the more powerful gasoline-only V-8 model, which gets 23 mpg.
Going hybrid doesn’t always mean getting the best fuel economy in all circumstances. Instinctively, it should, but engineering realities don’t always line up with our instincts. Like with the new 2020 Bentley Bentayga hybrid.
Despite the name, the Bentayga hybrid is actually a plug-in model, and as such it offers 18 zero-emission miles when the battery is charged up, according to the EPA. But, once that battery is depleted, the car’s highway fuel economy is only 21 miles per gallon. That’s not the worst number for a two-and-a-half-ton luxury SUV, but the nonhybrid V-8 model gets—drumroll please—23 mpg, according to the EPA, which released official numbers last week.
The PHEV is rated at 45 MPGe while using the battery’s energy, but once that runs out, it drops to 17 mpg city, 21 highway, and 19 mpg combined from its 443-hp 3.0-liter turbo V-6 plug-in-hybrid powertrain. The gasoline-powered V-8 model, which is nearly 100 horsepower more powerful, gets 17 combined mpg, 14 in the city, and, as stated, 23 on the highway. The 626-hp, 12-cylinder W-12 model gets 14 combined, 12 in the city, and 17 on the highway.
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A Bentley spokesperson tells us that the difference in highway fuel economy between the hybrid and gas models is due to the additional weight of the battery pack and the PHEV system. “In highway conditions with a depleted battery, the additional weight of the battery and associated hardware will cause a drop in the fuel economy,” the spokesperson said. “However, this is the worst-case scenario, and with a full battery and the satellite navigation engaged, the Bentayga hybrid calculates the most efficient use of battery charge over the course of the journey to maximize fuel economy.” We aren’t buying it, though, since the mass of the Bentayga’s hybrid componentry represents a tiny gain in percentage terms on this weighty SUV and also weight has a comparatively small impact on efficiency once a vehicle is up to speed.
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As the brand’s first big step toward electrification, Bentley engineers have made sure that the Bentayga hybrid was optimized for urban conditions, the spokesperson said, to match the stop-start driving that hybrids in the U.K. often use when commuting. Cruising around a busy city, as we used to do and will do again, takes advantage of the electric powertrain and allows more energy to be recuperated via regenerative braking—hence the 21 percent improvement in EPA city figures, from 14 mpg in the V-8 model to 17 mpg for the hybrid. Bentley even claims that in the real world, the Bentayga hybrid can go up to 30 miles in electric mode with a full battery pack and that its fuel economy (using the NEDC fuel-economy tests) results in numbers above 28 mpg.
When the highway calls—remember when it used to do that?—the Bentayga hybrid does a decent real-world job, the company claims. The spokesperson said that when the company measured the SUV’s performance, the data showed a 240-mile “typical highway journey” with a fully loaded car and a charged battery resulted in a 30.4-mpg efficiency level. With a depleted battery, the same trip was done at around 28.4 mpg.
Source: Motor - aranddriver.com
