Yahoo Autos Bentley Will Build its Last 12-Cylinder Engine Ever in April 2024
The W12 engine is one of the most unconventional powerplants in recent automotive history. Essentially two narrow-angle V6s merged together at the crankcase, it makes it possible to fit 12-cylinder power in a space not much bigger than you’d need for a V6. The W-configuration engine is a signature Volkswagen Group innovation, having appeared in 8-, 12-, and 16-cylinder forms throughout VW Group’s many brands. Now, Bentley is announcing that it will end W12 production in April 2024, capping off an era that began in 2003 with the brand’s first 6.0-liter twin-turbo W12.
Bentley said in a press release that, when the final W12 rolls off the assembly line next year, the company will have built more than 100,000 examples of the compact 12-cylinder engine. The British automaker also claims that, in the nearly 20 years since it began producing W12s, it has improved the engine’s horsepower output by 37 percent, torque by 54 percent, and reduced emissions by 25 percent.
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But there’s no room in Bentley’s “Beyond100" sustainability strategy for a honking 12-cylinder. The company hopes to have its entire lineup “fully electrified by the start of the next decade,” said today’s press release, reducing fleet average emissions to zero grams of CO2 per mile. “Electrified,” in this case, means hybrids to start, the W12 being replaced with V8s, plug-in hybrid V6s, and eventually, full EVs. Bentley is the last automaker in the VW Group portfolio to use the W12, so this is well and truly the end of the line for this engine.
