The days of the W12 engine at Bentley and thus in the Volkswagen Group are numbered. In the future, luxury cars will be electric. It won’t be long before the last W12 petrol engine is to roll out of the Crewe factory in the UK. With the twelve-cylinder from Bentley is not alone.
Bentley discontinues the twelve-cylinder engine. In April 2024, the last W12 petrol engine is scheduled to leave the VW subsidiary’s factory in Crewe, UK. At the farewell party, however, the most powerful version of the six-liter engine to date, with 552 kW or 750 hp, will be on the road – but only on board the limited Batur luxury coupe, which costs around two million euros.
The twelve-cylinder celebrated its premiere in 2001 on board the Audi A8 luxury sedan. It was then used in VW’s premium experiment, the Phaeton, and in the SUV flagship Touareg. In addition, the Dutch super sports car manufacturer Spyker bought the W12 engine from the north German company. Since 2020, responsibility for the unit has been with the Volkswagen luxury subsidiary Bentley, which currently offers it in all models. A total of around 100,000 units of the engine were built over the years.
In the future, however, the British will no longer have room for the prestige engine. In addition to the plug-in hybrids that are already available, the brand’s sedans and SUVs will soon only be powered by electric motors, and from 2030 the combustion engine technology will finally come to an end.
Bentley is not alone with the twelve-cylinder end: from 2030 at the latest, even its closest competitor, Rolls-Royce, only wants to offer electric vehicles, but the V12 should remain available in the brand’s current models for the time being. The British luxury carmaker introduced its first battery-powered model, the fastback coupe Spectre, in late 2022. It is the first in a series of E models. The entire portfolio should be battery-powered by 2030, including a sedan, a convertible and an SUV.
Sister company BMW has already discontinued its V12 in 2022 and only offers six and eight cylinders in the 7 series. The powerful and smooth-running engine type is still available in the Mercedes and Maybach S-Class.
