First Bentayga customers attend exclusive handover event at Bentley’s headquarters in Crewe.

• First Bentayga customers attend exclusive handover event at Bentley’s headquarters in Crewe, England
• Bespoke factory tour of Bentayga production
• First Edition models feature enhanced specification, with unique interior and exterior styling details

Bentley Motors today hands over the first Bentayga to customers, at an exclusive event at the company’s global headquarters in Crewe.

The event marks a major milestone in Bentley’s history, as customer cars for the brand’s fourth model line – built in Crewe alongside the Continental GT, Flying Spur and Mulsanne – commence delivery around the world.

Taking more than 130 hours to produce each car, guests at the event in Crewe were given privileged access to Bentley’s factory to see the skill and passion involved in Bentayga’s creation, with insight from key people involved in the car’s design, engineering and craftsmanship.

Kevin Rose, Member of the Board for Sales, Marketing and Aftersales commented, “This is an historic day for Bentley and it is a great testament to all the work which has gone in to producing Bentayga, the fastest and most luxurious SUV in the world.

“The customers joining us for the event have followed the Bentayga journey since we proposed the idea of a Bentley SUV, and were among the very first in the world to put their names down on the order book for First Edition cars – many before they had even seen the finished model.  Today their confidence in Bentley is repaid as they take delivery of a car which has been unanimously praised by the world’s media.

“I would also especially like to thank our 4,000-strong workforce in Crewe for their commitment in bringing Bentayga to life.  Their passion, skill and dedication is a significant part of makes Bentley such an iconic and appealing brand right around the world.”

The Bentley Bentayga combines unparalleled luxury with effortless performance and everyday usability. It is designed, engineered and handcrafted in Crewe.  Customer deliveries will commence in other regions around the world shortly.

Volvo and Microsoft move closer together to form a more indepth partnership for Autonomous Driving Technologies.

Volvo Cars, the premium car maker, will work together with Microsoft, the leading platform and productivity company, to jointly develop next-generation automotive technologies.

The two companies today revealed how Microsoft HoloLens, the world’s first fully untethered holographic computer, might be used in future to redefine how customers first encounter and explore a car, as well as how cars might be bought and sold in future.

Areas of future collaboration between the two companies could include autonomous driving technologies and the utilisation of data generated from connected cars to create new services.

Today’s HoloLens demonstration was conducted at Microsoft’s global headquarters in Redmond, USA, and showed how mixed reality might be used by customers to configure cars in three dimensions. With HoloLens – a powerful, wearable computer – holograms are mixed into the physical world.

“HoloLens offers the freedom to create a bespoke experience which customers can steer themselves. Imagine using mixed reality to choose the type of car you want – to explore the colours and wheels, or get a better understanding of the features, services and options available,” said Björn Annwall, Senior Vice President, Marketing Sales and Service at Volvo Cars.

He added that HoloLens technology might also liberate dealers from more traditional sales environments and allow them to take a car configurator out on the road in small Pop-Up stores, shopping malls or on the high street, opening up new sales channels and introducing cars to a far larger potential audience.

At the HoloLens demonstration today, participating journalists were also given a mixed-reality preview of Volvo’s new S90 premium saloon, which will be unveiled in reality at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit in January.

Today’s event offered an indication of the potential of mixed reality to transform the relationship between the customer and the car. Journalists were able to experience Volvo’s new saloon and its latest autonomous driving technology in 3D before the car has even been built and launched.

“We are thrilled to be working with Volvo Cars to reimagine what is possible in car design, discovery and purchasing," said Scott Erickson, Senior Director, Microsoft HoloLens at Microsoft Corp. "We are excited to be at this intersection of technology and human-centric design with Volvo.”

Today’s demonstration marks the beginning of longer-term cooperation between Volvo and Microsoft that will embrace a range of new technologies, all of which have implications for the automotive industry.

One area of focus will be autonomous driving. Volvo Cars is a pioneer in car safety and is leading the way when it comes to connected cars and autonomous driving. 

It has announced a programme called Drive-Me, in which 100 self-driving and connected cars will be given to real customers on real roads around the Swedish city of Gothenburg by 2017, making it the world’s largest autonomous driving experiment.

Other areas of cooperation are expected to include how information gathered by cars and their drivers can be used to enhance the driving experience and the possibility of using predictive analytics to improve safety.

“We are extremely happy to innovate with Microsoft in the field of future mobility,” said Klas Bendrik, Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer at Volvo Cars. 

“Today’s technology will allow us to achieve not only a more sustainable and crash-free future but also new benefits for our customers and society. Together with Microsoft we aim to pioneer in this field.”