Martin Winterkorn, chairman of the Volkswagen group, said the investment, which will take place over three years and include apprentice training, confirmed that the UK was a competitive place to build cars.
“We believe in the UK as a competitive location for industrial production. We believe in the people in Crewe,” he said. The company said it would add 400 to its 4,000 strong workforce and create at least 600 jobs in the supply chain.
Wolfgang Schreiber, chairman of Bentley, said Crewe, the northwest England home of the brand since 1946, had beaten competition from Bratislava, in Slovakia, where Audi SUVs are made.
He praised unions for agreeing to move to longer shifts on a four-day week to make the plant cost-effective. “Made in Britain” was still important for customers, he said.
The car, expected to sell for at least £150,000, will help keep the plant running at capacity.
The company intends to use “plug-in hybrid” technology in the new model, incorporating a battery that can be charged, as well as a fuel tank, to improve fuel-efficiency. This could then be added to the other four Bentley models.
Bentley hopes to build 3,000 SUVs a year – about a quarter of total production. In the first half of this year it delivered 4,279 cars to customers, up nine per cent year on year. More than 80 per cent of these were exported.
Bentley’s announcement follows similar decisions by “premium” brands Jaguar Land Rover, McLaren and BMW to invest in UK factories, reinvigorating an industry considered to be on its last legs just a decade ago and steering its focus towards high-end manufacturing and away from volume vehicles. Jaguar, owned by Tata of India, is also moving into the fast-growing sport utility vehicle market.
“One sector that we know is sprinting ahead in the global race is our booming automotive industry,” David Cameron, prime minister, said at the Bentley factory.
Hybrid, electric and other “green” vehicles are a focus of the government’s automotive strategy. Danny Alexander, the treasury secretary, said on Tuesday that the aim was to make the UK “the world’s hub” for low-emission technology.
SUVs and compact vehicles have become one of the luxury car industry’s most profitable segments, and coveted marques such as Porsche have trod a fine line between diluting brand image and broadening their customer base by stepping away from their traditional sports car image to tap rising demand.
Porsche’s Cayenne, the company’s first SUV, began production in 2002 and today accounts for more than half the company’s global sales.
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