Bentley accomplishes a historic first and achieves record sales in 2020

Bentley Motors has announced a total unit sales of 11,206 for 2020, an increase of 2% over 2019. Although the pre-COVID-19 sales forecast was much greater, new model introductions fuelled this significant achievement, which was the highest sales performance in any of its 101 years.

Bentley's production was shutdown for seven weeks beginning in March, and running at a 50% output for a further nine weeks thereafter, as social distancing measures were introduced. Nonetheless, a comprehensive redesign of the production facility enabled Bentley to meet increased global demand while maintaining these social distancing protocols to the current day and beyond.

The Americas remained Bentley's number one region, although a strong performance in China, posting an increase of 48%, ran it close.

Key to the company's ongoing success was the introduction of a number of exciting new models, combined with greater global availability of other popular models. In particular, the all new Flying Spur was launched internationally and received a phenomenal reception from customers and media alike. This demand was increased further in October with the introduction of a high-performance V8 engine derivative.

The Bentley Continental GT and GT Convertible together accounted for 39% of total sales, finishing the year as Bentley's number one selling model line. However, in spite of the run out of the previous generation model, and delays to market entry of the new Bentayga due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the pioneering, go-anywhere SUV was still the biggest selling single model, accounting for 37% of total sales.

The Americas region delivered 3,035 cars, an increase of 4% on 2019's figure of 2,913. Placing the region as Bentley's number one market, this strong performance was boosted by the introduction of the Flying Spur and a full year of sales of the Continental GT and GT Convertible.

Bentley's biggest growth was reserved for China, posting a sales increase of 48%, as the traditional sedan market welcomed the introduction of the new Flying Spur, with Bentayga sales remaining strong.

Europe closed the year with the delivery of 2,193 cars, a decrease of 18%, with the region impacted because of the market entry delays of the new Bentayga.

Bentley's home market in the U.K. continued its consistent strong performance, recording sales of 1,160 cars. This represented a decrease of 22% over the previous year. Bentley delivered 735 cars to the Middle East in 2020, against a total of 852 the previous year. Finally, the Asia Pacific region posted an increase of 6%, delivering 1,203 cars in 2020.