Bentley might still be bidding its W12 engine goodbye with various swansong vehicles, but now it’s the 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8’s turn to say adieu. At least in the Continental and Flying Spur models – the Bentayga will continue on with this powertrain for an unspecified amount of time.
We don’t have a hard cutoff in North America for the V8, but Bentley says production of its final 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8 cars in Europe, the UK and the Middle East is to be completed soon with final deliveries in June. North America “will follow later.” Before you hop straight to the comments, know this doesn’t mean Bentley is abandoning the V8 entirely. It announced alongside this news that an “all-new” V8 plug-in hybrid powertrain is on the horizon and will serve as the company’s flagship offering, technically replacing the W12. Output is pegged at 740 horsepower with this model, and all-electric range from the battery pack is estimated at 50 miles on the WLTP drive cycle – expect notably fewer miles of range in EPA testing. That’s all we know today, but Bentley says more will be revealed in time
As for what will replace the soon-to-be-retired gas-only V8 option, Bentley suggests hybrid powertrains would be used and that all of its model lines would offer a hybrid variant by 2024. The only model without a hybrid available yet is the Continental, so expect an announcement concerning that car imminently.
To celebrate the end of the current V8’s era, Bentley put together “Edition 8” versions of its Flying Spur, Continental GT and Continental GTC. It’s a North America-special and comes with lots of Mulliner options as standard equipment. The Continental models feature Edition 8 badges on their fenders, while the Flying Spur wears it on its D pillar. An Edition 8 motif can be seen embroidered on the seat backs and engraved on the treadplates, too. One particularly notable luxury touch is the Palm Fluting pattern (seen in the photo above) on its sumptuous seats, which Bentley says it has never offered on any of its core/mainstream models before.
Deliveries of the Edition 8 will begin “imminently,” so if you’re a particularly big fan of Bentley’s current V8 and have money to spend, now is the time.
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