The story about Felicity Ace incredible: a Japanese cargo ship under the Panamanian flag left the port of Emden, Germany, with a full cargoabout 4,000 cars from the Volkswagen website. On board were Audi, Porsche, Lamborghini, Volkswagen, as well 189 Bentley : invaluable cargo for the German group.

While sailing to the port of Davisville, Rhode Island in the United States, the Felicity Ace caught fire near the Azores February 17, 2022, and sank a few days later. The cause of the fire is believed to be the lithium-ion batteries of the electric vehicles on board the ship, but in reality it will be very difficult to determine its exact cause, which remains unknown.

Felicity Ace: A Big Commercial Challenge

As soon as the German group became aware of the fire, the respective brands mobilized to try to replace all the models lost in this disaster: thus Lamborghini decided to resume the production of the Aventador, to restore identically 15 Ultimae copies to deliver to its customers.

As for Bentley, the models on board were mostly unique as they went to Mulliner, the British marque’s exclusive personalization department. Fortunately, each of the configurations was carefully preserved in Bentley: there were Continental GTs and GTCs, Flying Spurs and Bentaygas.

Power torque. Mulliner #Badfish and Mulliner #Batur. #BentleyWorld | 📸: Bentley Maastricht pic.twitter.com/tjBXDQ3VG3

— Bentley Motors (@BentleyMotors) October 8, 2022

Felicity Ace: All models have been replaced

Bentley sold 4,212 cars in the Americas last year, reflecting the importance of this market to the Crewe firm. Therefore, it was necessary to find a solution as soon as possible to replace these 189 cars, which were eagerly awaited by their customers. Bentley management then implemented an emergency replacement plan to resume production of these models.

Coincidence: in the same period, a conflict arose in Ukraine, which freed up production places for Bentley, which decided to stop exporting products to Russia. The ability for the manufacturer to “rebuild” missing instances to restore them as quickly as possible.

Felicity Ace: Happy Bentley customers

Bentley then announced to its customers that the cars would be delivered again by the end of 2022. The wealthy owners were mostly understanding, and only three or four customers canceled their order.

Although production is concentrated solely at Bentley’s Crewe workshop, which uses artisan techniques to build each of the brand’s cars, the promise was kept as the last of the 189 replica cars was delivered last month.

Bentley is wrapping up production of 12 examples of the Bacalar, an exclusive convertible with the Mulliner signature that will soon unveil its new project. https://t.co/okvtZ1nd0Q

— AutoPlus (@AutoPlusMag) August 5, 2022