Bentley rebounded in the most brilliant way after $56,700,000 in cars sank on ship alongside 4,000 other supercars worth $400M
Published on Nov 21, 2025 at 3:35 PM (UTC+4)
by Jack Marsh
Last updated on Nov 21, 2025 at 3:35 PM (UTC+4)
Edited by
Emma Matthews
When thousands of supercars worth over $400 million, including a Bentley fleet worth $56,700,000, sank to the bottom of the ocean on the Felicity Ace, some of Europe’s biggest manufacturers were left in dire straits.
There’s always a risk when it comes to exporting cars around the world. Particularly in this day and age, where lithium-ion batteries are notoriously bad travelers.
But in one of the biggest automotive disasters of all time, the 60,000-tonne cargo ship known as Felicity Ace caught fire and sank, carrying over $400 million worth of cars from Lamborghini, Bentley, Audi, and more.
Three and a half years after the disaster, though, Bentley has fully bounced back.
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Bentley took a big risk, and it ended in salty tears
Usually, Bentley doesn’t put all of its eggs in one basket. When shipping cars out to the US, they usually load up cargo ships with 40-70 vehicles, depending on the price, and send them off in smaller consignments.
However, in a push to get more bespoke vehicles to custom buyers, on top of the usual exports, Bentley loaded up the Felicity Ace cargo ship with 189 luxury cars.
Averaging $300,000 each and totaling $56,700,000, the models from the Bentayga to Mulliner.
But this unusually large haul met a difficult end, with Felicity Ace sinking, and with it, 4,000 supercars worth were written off, including the entire Bentley shipment.

However, even before the ship hit the seabed, the company was already on course to rectify the situation.
Just as Audi responded to the 1,800 cars that it lost in the wreckage, Bentley rebounded in a similar fashion.
But the bounce back was incredible
Despite the loss representing 5 percent of the brand’s entire total sales in the Americas that year, the company instantly began lining up how to remake them.’
And they put a clear emphasis on getting the custom builds through the workshop as quickly as possible.
Helped by softening demands in China, and a stop on exports to Russia amid the conflict with Ukraine, Bentley pulled together to rebuild every one of the cars.
According to a report from Autonews, the British automakers have now shipped the last of the rebuilds, which was a customized Bentayga First Edition.

This marked the end of a massive effort to fulfil promises to its customers, and everyone who wanted one of the esteemed vehicles is now sitting comfortably on leather seats atop prime luxury engineering.
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Jack Marsh is a journalist who started his media career after graduating with a degree in Journalism from the University of Chester. As an avid supercar and racing enthusiast, he has a passion for everything from Formula 1 to NASCAR. Whether it's highlighting the intricacies of McLaren’s anti-dive suspension revelations or recognizing celebrities’ multi-million-dollar rides, he has a keen eye for the faster things in life.