Bentley Continental Supersports goes green. Or not

With a 6.0-litre W12 engine that can run on E85 biofuel, the Bentley Continental Supersports is one of the greenest, most environment-friendly cars that you can buy. No, wait, that was a joke...

This whole ‘green cars’ and ‘eco-friendly cars’ thing is becoming a bit of a joke. Take Bentley, for an example. Their Continental Supersports is fitted with a 6.0-litre 12-cylinder petrol engine that churns out 621 horsepower and 800Nm of torque. It propels the car from zero to 100km/h in 3.9 seconds, blasts it to a top speed of 329km/h and drinks fuel at the rate of 4km/l. That’s right, the Bentley Continental Supersports travels all of four kilometres on a litre of petrol…

Don’t get us wrong – we’re not complaining about the existence of this automobile, which is an ode to sheer excess if ever there was one. No, what we find funny is that Bentley is now trying to make this car ‘green,’ and they’re doing that by announcing a FlexFuel version that can run on E85 biofuel, petrol or any combination thereof. Oh, and they’re also proud of the fact that this is the lightest road-going Bentley ever (it weighs about 2,750 kilos!) and that it’s lost 110kg of weight due to the use of carbonfibre and carbon ceramics.

‘Producing the fastest Bentley was a challenge in itself. However, we were equally determined not to sacrifice any environmental aspect in pursuit of this goal. The result is the paradox that the most extreme Bentley ever, is also the greenest,’ says Dr Arno Homburg, Head of vehicle development at Bentley. ‘It is part of our responsibility as a car maker to contribute to environmental improvements and with Supersports you can see an evolution of this thinking,’ he adds. Dr Homburg, please understand, you simply cannot contribute to environmental improvements with a W12-engined car that drinks fuel at the rate of 25 litres per 100km!!!

We’re not knocking Bentely but we do believe that supercar and high-end luxury car makers should stop trying to peddle twaddle in the name of eco-friendliness and green-consciousness. Bentley, all you need to do is acknowledge that you build some great, high-performance cars that aren’t green. And if you absolutely must, add that someday you might build cars that are green(er). And let’s just leave it at that.