The very last Bentley Mulsanne rolled off the production line in June of 2020, marking not only the end of an 11-year run for the brand’s flagship model, but the end of Bentley’s 6.75-liter V-8 – the longest-serving V-8 to be in continuous production. With the Mulsanne officially out of the picture, what happens next? Well, as it turns out, the company is already working on a replacement for the Mulsanne, but it’s going to be radically different, and it’s going to stir things up a whole lot as it sets the tone for the brand’s future as we close out this decade and move into the next.

Bentley Mulsanne – Replace By A Two-Door GT

If there’s one thing that the 2020s have taught us, it’s that anything can happen, and that’s probably the easiest way to sum up what Bentley is planning for its next move. As you know, the brand is going to transition to an electric automaker over the rest of this decade, but its plans, up to this point, have been pretty vague. Now, thanks to a report from Autocar, we know what Bentley has in mind, and its future is built around five different electric cars, the first one of which will be previewed later on in 2022.

Set to take the place of the Mulsanne – it’s actually being described as a Mulsanne replacement – it will be the most expensive model in the lineup for now, just like the Mulsanne used to be, but there’s a catch. The Mulsanne’s replacement will be the first of five electric models, but it won’t share similar proportions, and it will ride much higher to accommodate underfloor batteries. This won’t exactly be the brand’s flagship in the long run, though, as a modern-day flagship that will sit at the top of the lineup is planned to launch before 2030. This model will be Bentley’s chance to take a bite out of the super-luxury segment with high profit margins and extreme customizability. As explained by Bentley’s CEO, Adrian Hallmark,

Here’s the real kicker, though. The new car that will replace the Mulsanne, might not be your typical four-door salon. Instead, it’s likely to take a different path as a sportier, two-door model. The reasoning behind this is simply because super-luxury saloons haven’t exactly been gaining popularity. In fact, in 2021, saloons had a market share of just 9.1-percent, a huge dip from the 21.6-percent share of the market in 2010. A lot of this can be attributed to SUVs and their overwhelming popularity, with the Bentley Bentayga already accounting for half of the sales Bentley records each month. So, outside of the typical super-luxury saloon dying, the brand also wants to do something different that won’t potentially cannibalize the Bentayga. So, a two-door sporty model is a strong possibility.

Where will the company come up with such a model, though? Well, it already has something to work with to some extent: the ultra-exclusive Bentley Mulliner Bacalar. It’s a roofless grand tourer and is considered a testbed for a model of this size and style. It, however, features Bentley’s W-12 instead of the brand’s upcoming electric powertrain. The new sporty EV will ride on a platform the company is co-developing with Audi, its sibling under the VAG umbrella. The architecture will be far from bespoke as it will underpin a number of models from both companies to keep overall costs down, but whether or not it’ll accommodate something the Mulsanne’s size is a mystery, so the flagship of the future may ride on a completely different platform.

All of this is good news, though, because previously, Bentley made use of platforms that weren’t designed with it or its needs in mind. As Hallmark put it, previous platforms “were developed from group architectures that were developed way before we got to the party.” This means it took considerable effort to make them work for Bentley’s needs, and it imposed a limit on what the company could do. Now, with Bentley being in the fold early on, these group architectures will be designed to meet their needs from the start as well. Ultimately, it’ll mean better cars and cheaper development. Hallmark has even said that this is a “game-changer.”

Battery Technology and Bentley – We’re Finally Here

An issue with a brand like Bentley going electric is that the brand doesn’t exactly build light cars, and when you add in massive battery packs – big enough to offer decent enough usable range – there’s a snowball effect of excessive weight and low range. Today, however, the brand is confident that battery technology has advanced enough that there are no longer concerns around the range in relation to the heavier weight of larger models. “We can now build a car as big as what we have now,” said Hallmark. The plan, however, is to use what’s available now and then retrofit fresh technology later.

As the story goes, the first two or three Bentley EVs will have a lot in common when it comes to battery technology, but the cars that come afterward – including the new flagship – will be built around new technology developments. The improvements brought by new technology in these newer models with then be “retro-applied” to the first crop of EVs. The usable range for the first models is said to be “more than 300 miles,” though, it’s hard to imagine much more than 300 in the real world, at least for now. Either way, Bentley has its work cut out for it, but it does sound like it’s going about it the right way, so that’s very good news.