Ultra-performance hybrid succeeds Bentley’s W12

Earlier this month, Bentley Motors Ltd announced that its iconic W12 engine will be succeeded by an all-new performance-focused V8 hybrid powertrain, one that will produce the highest power output ever offered in a Bentley and befitting of ‘a new generation of daily supercars’. Christened the ‘Ultra Performance Hybrid’, the new powertrain follows Bentley’s long-standing tradition of supplementing class-leading combustion engines with technology to increase performance.

The company says supercharging in the 1920s was the early forebear to the use of turbocharging from the 1980s to present day. From this summer, Bentley is bringing even more performance through ‘electrocharging’ via a hybrid system that will create ‘the most advanced and most powerful powertrain in Bentley’s 105-year history’, one that provides more than 750PS (about 740bhp) and a 50 mile electric-only range. That power output represents at least 91PS more than the W12 engine previously offered in the Flying Spur and GT W12 Speed derivatives.

As Bentley’s iconic 6.0-litre twin turbo W12 engine heads towards retirement this summer, with 105,000 engines built over the last two decades, the new Ultra Performance Hybrid will take on the mantle as Bentley’s leading powertrain; and while developing more power than the W12 and ‘four-figure torque over a wider plateau’, the Ultra Performance Hybrid will also deliver a WLTP (Worldwide harmonised Light vehicles Test Procedure) drive cycle CO2 figure of under 50g/km.

Bentley has also release an engine sound clip that reveals a combination of a ‘cross-plane bass with a free-revving growl — the ‘polar opposite to the absolute silence the system will offer in electric mode’. The company says more details of its new electrified powertrain, which will drive the next phase of its Bentley’s Beyond 100 journey and deliver the promise of every car in the range being available as a hybrid, will be released over the coming weeks.