More than 100 000 units were built at Crewe but production will stop on 24 April 2024.
Only 18 examples of the most powerful Bentley Batur will be handcrafted by Mulliner has sold out. It has 750 horses and 1000Nm under the bonnet and is completing durability testing currently. All 30 W 12 manufacturing will be retrained and used in other divisions of Bentley. The W 12 engine line will be replaced by the V8 and V6 Hybrid.
Bentley is accelerating towards a sustainable future through its Beyond100 strategy which will see the company’s entire model line fully electrified by the start of the next decade. This has begun with the popular new Bentayga and Flying Spur Hybrid models. When production of the W12 ceases next year, Bentley’s entire model line will be available with the option of a hybrid powertrain. Meanwhile, an engine first made available in the sector-defining Continental GT, which has been powering Bentley both metaphorically and literally for the last 20 years, will be consigned to history.
Bentley’s Chairman and Chief Executive, Adrian Hallmark, comments: “Our progressive journey towards sustainable luxury mobility means making changes to every area of Bentley Motors. When we first launched the W12 back in 2003, we knew we had a mighty engine that would propel both our cars and the brand forwards at speed. 20 years and more than 100 000 W12s later, the time has come to retire this now-iconic powertrain as we take strides towards electrification – but not without giving it the best send-off possible, with the most powerful version of the engine ever created. The 750 PS titan that Mulliner has created for the Batur marks the end of a development journey of which our engineering and manufacturing colleagues should be extremely proud, and when production finishes in April next year we aim to retrain and redeploy all of the skilled craftspeople who still build each engine by hand.”
Battling through an exceptionally gruelling series of durability tests, the uprated engine has proven to be as reliable as ever and so will equip the most powerful road-going Bentley ever built. While all Baturs are sold, a limited number of the 659 PS version of the W12 engine offered in the Speed versions of Continental GT, Bentayga and Flying Spur as well as the Continental GT Mulliner and Flying Spur Mulliner can still be ordered. Demand for these final W12-powered Speed and Mulliner models is expected to be high, and customers eager to secure one of the last ever 12-cylinder Bentleys should contact their retailer with equal speed.
Each W12 engine is hand-built over 6.5 hours by a team of craftspeople before undertaking a highly sophisticated test regime. The W12 engine facility will have delivered over 105 000 engines before reaching its 20th anniversary this year.
Batur Showcases the Ultimate W12
Mulliner’s engineering team has reworked the intake, exhaust and cooling systems to liberate more power and torque than ever before. The turbocharger compressors are of a new design to improve efficiency, while the ducts that feed air to them are 33 per cent larger – at peak power, the new engine ingests more than a ton of air (1 050 kg) per hour.
The legendary 6.0-litre twin-turbocharged W12, created in 2002, has evolved into the latest iteration of W12 engine used across today’s current model range. The unique W-configuration means that the engine is 24 per cent shorter than an equivalent V12, benefitting packaging and maximising usable cabin space.
Bentley’s Variable Displacement system shuts down half of the engine under defined conditions. Intake and exhaust valves, fuel injection and ignition are all shut down on defined cylinders, with the engine running as a six-cylinder for improved efficiency. The system will run in this mode in gears three to eight, below 3 000rpm and up to 300Nm torque output.
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