Bentley to stop producing W12 engines by Q2 2024

Bentley announced that it will stop producing its W12 powertrain by second quarter of next year.

The European automotive marque said that it will cease creating the aforementioned 12-cylinder gasoline-fed engines in April 2024. Bentley said that by the time the production is halted, more than 100,000 examples of the W12 engine have already been made in its Dream Factory in Crewe, England.

Bentley said that the decision is part of its move towards achieving a sustainable future via the firm’s Beyond100 strategy. Under the aforementioned plan, Bentley will replace its current roster with fully-electrified 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 said in a statement.

However, the company said that the W12 engine would be retiring an appropriate send-off. The latest version of the said powertrain — to be fitted to just 18 units of the Bentley Batur that will be handcrafted by Mulliner.

Bentley confirmed that the W12’s newest iteration is capable of delivering nearly 740 horsepower and 1,000Nm of pulling power.

“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,” Bentley Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Adrian Hallmark said.

“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,” he added.

Since Bentley is going to cease the production of its W12 engine, is eyeing to retrain and redeploy all 30 of the skilled craftspeople that hand-assembled and tested W12 engines at its carbon-neutral factory in Crewe. The production facility, the firm noted, will make way for an expanded line for the completion of other Bentley engines used for the plug-in hybrid models.

According to Bentley, each W12 engine is hand-built for more than six hours by a team of craftspeople before testing for over an hour via three specialist diagnostic machines. Every week, one engine is run over an extended test cycle and then fully stripped for inspection.

Further, the automotive marque said that the facility will produce more than 105,000 W12 power mills before reaching its 20th anniversary this year.

Photos from Bentley

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