Bentley introduces a new flagship to fill the Murzanne void, but not a sedan.

Production of Bentley's Mulsanne will cease at the end of 2020, and in January the company unveiled the Mulsanne 6.75 Edition to mark the end of the flagship sedan's lifespan.

This means Bentley will soon be without a model capable of challenging the Rolls-Royce Phantom, but CEO Adrian Hallmark said in a recent interview that there are plans to fill the void in the future.

In an interview with Car and Driver published Tuesday, Hallmark hinted that the next model could be an SUV rather than a sedan.

"SUVs accounted for 47% of sales last year, and if you look at the segment below us, about 50%," he said. So both premium and luxury car buyers now find SUVs much more attractive."

By contrast, he said, global demand for sedans in the segment in which the Mürzanne competes is declining and is currently around 1,000 units per year, with the Mürzanne and Phantom sharing the market almost equally. It is difficult to justify developing a new sedan that can only sell 400-600 units a year, he said.

Bentley is in no hurry to fill the void left by the Murzanne model. Bentley is in no hurry to fill the void left by the Murzanne. Bentley's next major model will be the EV, due mid-decade, followed by a new flagship model.

In an interview with Car and Driver magazine, Hallmark also stated that Bentley will drop the 6.0-liter W-12 twin-turbo engine relatively soon.

"For 100 years we've been trying to make our engines bigger and more powerful. In the next ten years, we're going to make the engine disappear."