Bentley celebrates hitting a production milestone of 200,000 cars produced

Bentley Motors has celebrated the 200,000^th luxury car built in the company's 100-year-plus history. The Bentayga Hybrid, destined for a Chinese customer, met the oldest surviving Bentley, the EXP 2, and a number of long serving colleagues, as it rolled off the production line at the home of Bentley in Crewe this week.

This crowns an extraordinary 20-year period in which the success driven by modern day models such as the Continental GT and Bentayga has truly changed the face of Bentley Motors.

The manufacturing milestone is even more remarkable when considering that the 200,000^thcar is the latest in 155,582 vehicles built at Crewe since 2003 - the breakthrough year the Continental GT was originally launched as the first model of the modern Bentley era. Today, Bentley is building 85 cars per day, the same output in one month two decades ago.

In comparison to Bentley's modern era, Bentley only built 44,418 cars from 1919 to 2002, with 38,933 of these cars being built in Crewe. Among that total were many iconic models of their time, including the Bentley Blower, the R-Type Continental, the Mulsanne, Arnage and the Azure. Incredibly, records show that 84% of all cars built for the U.K. market are still on the road today.

A major investment programme at the Crewe factory since 2003 has gone hand-in-hand with the success of the Bentley Continental GT, the definitive luxury Grand Tourer. The 80,000^th individual, made-to-order example was built in January this year.

To witness the landmark moment, the Bentayga Hybrid and the EXP 2 were joined by Bentley's longest serving colleagues, including Steve Ward, who joined in 1977 and followed in his father's footsteps, whose own Bentley career beginning 42 years earlier.

In his role as Whole Vehicle Analysis Engineer, Steve has had an active involvement with every Bentley model since 1980 and has tested them throughout the world, witnessing first-hand the transformation in modern-day Bentley cars.