Bentley Expands Headquarters With New Engineering Test Centre
The Bentley headquarters at Pym Lane, Crewe, will start to get a little larger as the company has started work on a new facility on the site to support vehicle development.
Scheduled for completion in the back half of 2020, the engineering test centre consists of a two-storey building covering a total floor area of around 4,600 square metres.
A third of that space is designed to house a chassis dynamometer, in a special, climate-controlled enclosure that can operate over a temperature range of -10°C to +40°C, allowing Bentley to simulate extreme cold and hot weather on-site.
In addition there’s a special laboratory designed for emissions and efficiency testing, giving Bentley the ability to carry out real-world driving emissions tests and standardised industry tests like the Worldwide Harmonised Light Vehicle Test Procedure (WLTP) for CO2 emissions.
That will be assisted by an outdoor fuel filling station as part of the building. There’s no word on vehicle charging points, with the brand yet to produce a fully electric vehicle, though Bentley does say it will support the brand’s development of electric and electrified vehicles over the coming years.
Bentley’s Technical Conformity department will be based in the new building too, with over 100 people moving across the road from the main Bentley site. There’s nearly 800 square metres of office space in the test centre for the moving staff.
The facility will help Bentley as it continues to update and upgrade its Crewe facilities, and faces increasing demand for vehicles like its sales record-breaking Bentayga.
