Bentley Batur Gears Up For Production
In 2022, Bentley ripped the covers off its Batur by Muliner as a model that previews what future Battery Electric Vehicles from Crewe could look like. This was a response to the brand’s plans to transition into a fully-electric marque by 2030.
That aside, it also celebrates the brand’s iconic 12-cylinder engine as it nears the end of its lifespan.
We will let you ponder the Batur’s styling while you decide whether it’s worth the £1,980,000 or R39,137,720 price tag at the current exchange rate. It does look stunning, and we think it’s even more imposing in the metal.
Bentley has now announced that the Batur has completed its whole vehicle development programme, ensuring it meets the highest performance and durability standards.
Bentley built two pre-production models for the tests: Car Zero and Car Zero-Zero. Car Zero features a Purple Sector body shade and a gloss dark titanium grille. Car Zero-Zero sports a Marina Teal body.
The programme saw the Batur pre-production models undergoing durability tests on handling tracks, real-world road conditions, high-speed testing beyond 320 km/h, and 600 hours of solar loading, equivalent to five years of exposure in the Arizona desert.
Though you’d think it is fully electric, the Batur is not. It uses a 6.0-litre W12 twin-turbocharged engine with 544 kW and a colossal 1,000 Nm, thus making it the most powerful Bentley ever.
The interior is just pure work of art courtesy of recycled, 3D-printed gold on the Charisma Dial that surrounds the start/stop button. It also includes low-carbon leather sourced from Scotland or sustainably tanned leather from Italy as well as Dinamica which is a suede-like sustainable alternative to leather.
As the last model to be powered by the W12 engine, Bentley will only build 18 examples of the model at its carbon-neutral factory in Crewe, England, in the coming months. Each model takes around four months to complete, and according to Bentley, all examples have already been spoken for.
Bentley is facing a radical shift in the automotive fold as electrification becomes a serious topic of discussion. So far, 50% of Bentley’s range is available with a hybridised powerplant, and the marque aims to electrify its entire range in some form by 2026. The Batur marks the end and the beginning of an interesting era in motoring.
Ciao to the iconic W12…
