Luxury car brand Bentley is set to make a historic shift towards electrification by retiring its flagship 12-cylinder engine, according to the Financial Times.
This makes Bentley - which has been owned by Germany's Volkswagen Group (XETRA:VOW) since 1998 - the first among its competitors to make such a move. The 12-cylinder engine has been the epitome of engineering excellence during the combustion era, but with the car industry’s shift towards electric technology, Bentley is going with the flow.
Bentley’s 12-cylinder engines have been larger than the standard engines used in most petrol cars and even larger than the V8 engines commonly used in high-performance cars.
The current batch of engines, which were first released in 2003 with over 100,000 of them produced, will roll off the production line in April 2024, the FT said.
The paper noted Bentley’s competitors including Rolls-Royce and Ferrari (NYSE:RACE) are still planning to offer 12-cylinder engines for several more years while also preparing to roll out electric models.
Luxury car brands have been generally slower to introduce battery-powered vehicles as customers are often able to afford several cars and do not want to compromise on range.