We expect the finest wood and leather in a Bentley, but the Bentley Flying Spur Hybrid Odyssean Edition is putting a sustainable twist on this notion.
UPDATE, 17/08/2021 – Bentley has confirmed local pricing and launch timing for the Odyssean Edition.
It’ll arrive in Australia in the second quarter of 2022, priced from $552,474 before on-road costs.
Inside the Odyssean Edition, there are panels of tweed made from 100 per cent British wool, with Bentley “twisting a blend of tonal colours into a bespoke yarn”.
Bentley also says “sustainable leather is used widely across the cabin”. Accents are finished in a colour called Autumn, with five different leather finishes – Beluga, Porpoise, Cricketball, Brunel and Burnt Oak – paired with a lighter leather trim called Linen.
There’s ombré embroidery on the seats, as well as deep-pile floor mats. You can even upgrade these to lambswool rugs.
The open-pore Koa veneer in the cabin uses 90 per cent less lacquer than high-gloss veneers, featuring just three ultra-thin layers of lacquer. The centre console, in contrast, is finished in Piano Linen veneer.
Inspired by the 2019 EXP 100 GT concept, the exterior features painted Pale Brodgar accents on its 21-inch alloy wheels, front and rear bumpers, headlight and tail light surrounds, and along its lower-body chrome.
Bentley recommends one of six exterior colours, though the full palette is available. There are also Odyssean Edition badges on the D-pillars and sill plates.
The Odyssean Edition comes standard with other upscale touches, such as a leather headliner and an electrically-deployed, illuminated Flying B hood ornament.
Touring Specification, Bentley’s suite of driver assist features, is standard and includes night vision, a head-up display and adaptive cruise control.
Also per the ‘regular’ Hybrid, there are connected car services available through the My Bentley app. Through this, you’ll be able to remotely lock or unlock the car, commence charging if it’s plugged in, and adjust the climate control settings.
The Odyssean Edition is based on the new Flying Spur Hybrid, due here in early 2022.
It uses a 2.9-litre twin-turbocharged V6 engine mated to a supplementary electric motor and a 14.1kWh lithium-ion battery.
Total system outputs are 400kW of power and 750Nm of torque, with the Flying Spur Hybrid claiming to complete the 0-100km/h sprint in 4.3 seconds.
With this powertrain, Bentley says the new Flying Spur Hybrid has a range of 700km with an electric-only range of an estimated 40km (WLTP).
Bentley has incorporated three distinct electric drive modes into the Flying Spur in what it calls a “subtle integration of technology”.
EV Drive is an all-electric mode designed for short city trips, Hybrid utilises both petrol and electric motors to maximise vehicle efficiency and Hold pushes back high-voltage battery use for a later stage.
The electrification of the Bentley range will hardly be odyssean, with the brand to become electric-only in less than a decade.
The company will sell only all-electric vehicles from 2030, and before then it’s rolling out hybrid versions of its range.
It plans to hybridise its entire range by 2024 and introduce its first electric vehicle in late 2025.
Bentley is aiming to be end-to-end carbon neutral by 2030, and its factory in Crewe was certified in 2019 as the first carbon neutral car plant in the UK by the Carbon Trust.
