LONDON — Bentley began the year with 50 percent more orders than the start of 2020 and built more luxury cars in January than the year before as China boosted demand, Adrian Hallmark, the automaker’s CEO, told Reuters.
The Volkswagen-owned brand said it had not faced major disruption from Britain’s exit from the European Union nor from a shortage of semiconductor chips, which has forced some automakers to halt or reduce production.
Based in Crewe, northern England, the marque made a small profit in 2020, when its factory was forced to close as Britain entered its first national lockdown, and hopes to build on that this year.
“The order bank at the beginning of this year was 50 percent higher than it was at the beginning of last year,” Hallmark said in an interview.
“China, by far, is the most outstanding performance in the world in respect of level of orders compared with normal expectations,” the CEO said.
The automaker sold 11,206 cars in 2020.
