Bentley Motors achieved its best sales ever during 2020, despite a production shutdown and global lockdowns.
Although its pre-COVID sales forecast was much greater, the luxury British marque still managed to sell 11,206 cars – an increase of 2% over 2019.
Bentley’s production was shut down for seven weeks beginning in March, and running at 50% output for a further nine weeks thereafter, as social distancing measures were introduced.
A resulting comprehensive redesign of the production facility enabled Bentley to meet this global demand, led by China, the Americas and Asia Pacific regions.
The Bentley Continental GT (24%) and GT Convertible (15%) together accounted for 39% of total sales. However, the Bentayga SUV was still the biggest-selling single model, accounting for 37% of total sales.
“Even though we anticipated greater sales before the pandemic struck, when you consider the level of restrictions around the world for the majority of the year, to achieve a record sales performance is a strong measure of our potential,” said Adrian Hallmark, Chairman and CEO of Bentley Motors.
Market | 2020 (sales) | 2019 (sales) | 2020 (% of total sales) |
Americas | 3,035 (+4%) | 2,913 | 27% |
China | 2,880 (+48%) | 1,940 | 26% |
Europe | 2,193 (-18%) | 2,670 | 20% |
Asia Pacific | 1,203 (+6%) | 1,139 | 11% |
United Kingdom | 1,160 (-22%) | 1,492 | 10% |
Middle East | 735 (-14%) | 852 | 6% |
Total | 11,206 (+2%) | 11,006 | 100% |