LONDON, March 4 (Reuters) - Luxury carmaker Bentley said that maintaining free trade with the European Union was its priority over a Brexit deal with the United States, saying less favourable terms could force it to do more of the work on its British-made cars abroad.

Britain formally left the EU on Jan. 31 but little will change in its relationship with the bloc this year, with London and Brussels negotiating a new relationship due to come into force from 2021.

"As a luxury player with 24% of our sales in the EU and 90% of our parts purchases ... from the EU, it would help us greatly if we didn't have to pay more for them or get less margin back for the products that we finish and send," Chief Executive Adrian Hallmark told Reuters.

"When we look at the current model, where we just bring in built bodies and then do everything else here, it may be that we do more outside of the UK and then do the rest here. It may shift the balance but we're a long, long way from those discussions."

McLaren Automotive's boss Mike Flewitt said that if the EU imposed the maximum 10% tariff after Brexit, the share of the company's roughly 4,700 sales which go to the EU could fall from 18% to as low as 12%.







(Reporting by Costas Pitas; editing by Stephen Addison)