This month, we celebrate Andreas Lehe, Member of the Board for Manufacturing at Bentley Motors, as our Manufacturing Champion.
Andreas joined Bentley Motors in September 2023 and has since been instrumental in Bentley’s transformation plans; particularly the development of the new, sustainable manufacturing facilities at the company’s zero-carbon headquarters in Crewe. Prior to his role at Bentley, Andreas served as Head of Strategic Planning at Audi AG, where he furthered the company’s production, digitisation and logistic strategies.
In the following Q&A, Andreas provides MEPCA magazine with an insight into his work at Bentley, helping the company to achieve a more sustainable future for automotive manufacturing.
Since joining Bentley, you have played a pivotal role in the company’s ambitious Beyond100 strategy. What key challenges must the industry address to achieve its sustainability and carbon neutral goals?
I believe that Bentley, and the entire industry, is at a point of fundamental transition. The future of mobility is open to innovation – even redefinition – and Bentley is perfectly positioned to grasp this opportunity and lead the way in shaping the future of sustainable luxury mobility. We are committed to real change across our value chain and although the scale of the opportunity is significant, we have clear plans to make this a reality. The biggest challenge is delivering a true circular economy approach to future battery electric vehicles, from green steel and aluminium, the circular approach to minerals and other materials, to environmental paint methods and even customer touchpoints. It’s not straightforward and certainly won’t be linear, but the speed of change is lightning, and we are confident Bentley will be a much-evolved company in the years that follow.
The new Paint Shop at Crewe is shaping up to be a truly ground-breaking facility. What features of the site are you most proud of and why?
We are in the middle of a site transformation that is evolving an 85-year-old factory into a new age of electrification, while at the same time confirming our commitment to the UK. The new facility supports our aim for a benchmark position in new innovative technologies, skills and facilities to enable a truly digital, highly-flexible benchmark for luxury car manufacturing. I think what I am most proud of, and continues to make Bentley unique, is the sheer scale of optionality that we can deliver. Every customer has nearly 100 different paint colours to choose from as our ‘standard’ palette, and that is before we consider Mulliner personalisation. That is extraordinary capability, in our facilities, and from our valued colleagues.
How has your career to date, which has included working in Europe and South America, prepared you for your role in the development of Bentley’s Dream Factory?
I feel very privileged that I have had the opportunity to lead a number of very complex factories around the world in some of the most successful automotive companies, including Volkswagen and Audi. My previous roles align well with the upcoming opportunities for expansion at Bentley, not least where I was responsible as Head of Strategic Planning to evolve the production strategies for every Audi factory around the world, and advancing the digitisation across the global network. Before this, I was Executive President of Audi’s newest global plant, Audi Mexico, which offered the latest advances in manufacturing processes and was firmly committed to ecological, social and economic stability, a shared belief with Bentley. Having also delivered one of the most successful modern paint shops across the Volkswagen Group, the production, sustainability and commercial insights gained, and working closely with our fantastic team, will help deliver a ground-breaking, state-of-the-art paint shop for Bentley.
