Bentley sets retirement date for decades-old 12-cylinder engine

Bentley will cease hand-building 12-cylinder engines in April next year as the British carmaker focuses on turning out a fully electric model line-up by the start of the next decade.

The Volkswagen-owned manufacturer plans to retrain and redeploy the 30 employees who assemble and test W12 engines in Crewe, England, where Bentley has been making cars for 77 years. The W12 has been in production there for the past two decades.

“The time has come to retire this now-iconic powertrain as we take strides towards electrification,” CEO Adrian Hallmark said.

Bentley expects high demand for the final Speed and Mulliner versions of its Continental GT, Bentayga and Flying Spur models powered by an updated version of the engine.

Bentley has been a rare success story among UK carmakers in the years since the Brexit referendum, having earned record profit on its best sales ever last year. It’s ploughing as much as £3bn (roughly R65,740,500,000) into its Crewe complex in a multiyear overhaul befitting the radical change in its product line-up.

As a low-volume manufacturer owned by one of the world’s largest carmakers, Bentley is insulated from the UK’s troubling lack of local battery production.

Hallmark said late last year the company won’t need a battery factory in Britain, telling reporters the cost of shipping them in from elsewhere will be manageable.

The CEO was less sanguine about the broader UK auto industry’s prospects, saying  it will be difficult to import batteries in bigger volumes because they cost about six times the price of engines. Britain’s shrinking car manufacturing base — production has slumped to the lowest in 66 years —  is also cutting against the business case for battery suppliers to set up factories.

Phasing out the W12 will make room for Bentley to expand its line of engines used for plug-in hybrids. When production ceases next year, the company will offer the option of a hybrid powertrain across its model line-up.

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