Bentley has no plans to move production away from the UK, boss Frank-Steffen Walliser has confirmed, despite most of its sales coming in the US, where new tariffs have contributed to a heavy drop in profits.
In the first nine months of 2025, Bentley sold 7236 cars, of which almost a third were shipped to North America. Indeed, the reveal of the new, limited-run Continental Supersports will take place in New York next Friday, which, Autocar understands, is because most examples will end up there.
But worries have arisen across the automotive industry following the introduction of higher US import levies earlier this year. Bentley initially froze sales to the market when they were introduced in May, given the uncertainty around them.
The higher import rates, combined with a 2% dip in sales and costs incurred due to the abandoned Porsche-managed EV platform, resulted in Bentley profits dropping 62% year on year between January and the end of September.
Asked by Autocar during a press briefing on Wednesday if, therefore, it made sense to set up a production base in North America to service that market, Walliser said: “The US is a super-important market to us. We have very loyal customers and lots of fans. But it does not make any sense to build cars there given our volumes and the effort it will take to move production there.
“And [on] the tariff… we have got one of the best [rates] in the world. We can handle 10% – it was 2.5% but we can handle 10% [increase]. A British luxury car needs to come from the UK and this is what our customers are asking for.”
“Look at the investment we have taken with the [Crewe] site. We are really serious,” added Walliser, referencing the £2.5 billion spent on making the Bentley factory EV ready as part of its Beyond100+ plan. Its first EV will be revealed by the end of next year.
His comments regarding the importance of the Crewe site – which has been home to Bentley’s car production since 1945 – were backed by R&D boss Matthias Rabe. “A luxury Swiss watch comes from Switzerland. A luxury British car comes from the UK. The Bentley is coming and will always come from Crewe,” said Rabe.
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Given the likelihood of a new government/president in under 3 years whio would probably remove the tariffs, assuming the Supreme Coirt and/or a crashed economy doesn't force this before then, investing in a US factory makes little sense. Be handy if they built one in a UK friendly neighbour like Canada though...