Bentley has announced it is to cease the production of its iconic W12 engine in 2024.

The British luxury carmaker revealed the news last month as it continues to pursue its Beyond100 strategy, which will see the company’s entire model line be fully electrified by the start of the next decade. The W12 engine line will become part of the production areas for V8 and V6 Hybrid powerplants.

Since first launched in 2003, Bentley says it has produced more than 100,000 of the engines, with the powerplants at the heart of models including the Continental GT, the Flying Spur, and the Bentayga.

The company is saying farewell to the W12 in a dramatic manner, with the most powerful variant ever to be built for the Bentley Mulline Batur – a two-door grand touring coupe that is showcase for the new design language Bentley will use for its future range of electric vehicles.

Just 18 Batur’s are to be built and they will be powered by hand-built, twin-turbo, W12 engines delivering 552kW and 1000Nm.

Over the 20 years of production and development, the W12 has seen performance consistently improved. Power has increased by 37 per cent and torque by 54 per cent while emissions have been reduced by 25 per cent.

Each W12 is hand-built over 6.5 hours by a team of craftspeople, and Bentley says that its aim is to retrain and redeploy all 30 of those employees.

Source: Motor Trader e-Magazine (Mar 2023)

14 March 2023