Coach-built Bentley is announced and debuts on May 7 with W-12 engine.

A new coachbuilt Bentley with a W-12 engine will debut on May 7.

The unnamed new model follows the limited edition Speedster Bacalar and Coupe Batur, and like those cars will be built by Bentley's Mulliner personalization division. Production will be limited to just 16 units, compared to 12 for the Bacalar and 18 for the Batur.

The coachbuilt model will be one of the last Bentley production cars to be powered by the 6.0-liter twin-turbo W-12 engine, which will be phased out this year. last year Bentley launched the Bentayga, Flying Spur, Continental GT coupe and Speed Edition 12 on convertibles to commemorate Bentley's most iconic engine of the modern era.

Bentley had previously stated that the Batur would be powered by the most powerful version of this engine, so perhaps the new coachbuilt Bentley will not match the coupe's 730 hp and 740 lb-ft of torque The Speed Edition 12 models' 650 hp, which may be closer to the hp output of the Speed Edition 12 model.

Bentley introduced the W-12 in 2003 with the first Continental GT. More than 105,000 units are expected to be produced before production ends this year. Bentley has not revealed the powertrain that will replace the W-12, but rumors suggest a plug-in hybrid with a turbocharged V-8 engine

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The plan is to eventually replace even the plug-in hybrid with an EV, but Bentley recently postponed its earlier goal of doing so by the end of the decade. The company now plans to debut its first EV in 2026. Given the positive response to the Bacalar and Batur, which sold out quickly, a coachbuilt Bentley could follow in the EV era.