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The Bentley Mulsanne exits the stage as production ends

Bentley is done with the Mulsanne. The one you’re looking at here is the penultimate car to come out of the factory in Crewe, Cheshire, England. Apparently, the owner of the last one is rather secretive and wants to keep their car under wraps. That being the case, Bentley has surrounded this Tungsten and Rose Gold Mulsanne with all the pomp and circumstance one would expect from the end of an era at Bentley. At least, as much as the pandemic will allow. Bentley employees are pictured here next to the car, standing apart with masks on. ItÂ’s one of the Mulsanne 6.75 Edition cars Bentley previously announced, which the company limited to just 30 units. The end of the Mulsanne also means the end of the 6.75-liter V8 at Bentley. We gave that engine its own sendoff post, but needless to say, the engine series is an old one and can be traced back to 1959. BentleyÂ’s Mulsanne is much less old. This flagship sedan was introduced at Pebble Beach in 2009, and has been in production ever since. Bentley has given it a couple rounds of updates, with the addition of the faster Mulsanne Speed in 2015, along with a design and tech refresh in 2016. Bentley built just over 7,300 total Mulsannes, and itÂ’s released a few eye-popping production stats. In the end, about 700 people were part of the production process to build the Mulsanne, putting in nearly 3 million total hours. Over a million total hours have been spent creating the interiors, and nearly 90,000 hours have been spent polishing the cars.  “I am immensely proud of the hundreds of designers, engineers and craftspeople that brought the Mulsanne to life over the last 10 years,” said Adrian Hallmark, Bentley CEO. “Now, as we begin BentleyÂ’s journey to define the future of sustainable luxury mobility through our Beyond100 strategy, the role of Bentley flagship is passed to the new Flying Spur.” ThatÂ’s right, the Flying Spur is the new flagship for the time being. Though, the latest rumors point to Bentley making a gigantic SUV as its future flagship vehicle to properly replace the Mulsanne. Is anybody surprised? Related video:

Ultra-luxury automakers like Bentley and Rolls-Royce need to hurry up with EVs

In the five years that I've worked at Autoblog, I've read a lot of press releases. They're all pretty flowery and self-serving, but the ones that go the extra distance with lavish words and pompous phrasing tend to come from the most luxurious brands, Bentley and Rolls-Royce. And something that they both love talking about is sustainably sourced materials for their vehicles. The descriptions read like they've seen the light about using resources responsibly. That would be great, except for one thing: There's nothing sustainable about multi-ton land yachts with eight or more cylinders. Only one of Bentley's models can be had with fuel economy better than 20 mpg combined when running on gasoline, and guess what, it's not one of the brand's two plug-in hybrids (which are to be commended, but still seem half-hearted when we're talking serious sustainability). And Rolls-Royce is even worse without a single model even hitting 15 mpg combined. These automakers should have at least one EV model apiece. Apparently, there are some coming, but they're still years away, and that frankly shocks and frustrates me for a number of reasons. One of the big ones is that these brands couldn't be better suited to electric propulsion. What makes these cars impressive is their refinement and performance. You can't get much better in either of those categories than with beefy electric motors, which provide nearly silent operation with no gear changes and enormous power and torque ratings. And it's all achievable with a lot less effort than making an 8- or 12-cylinder internal combustion engine quiet and smooth. Sure, battery technology is complicated, and it's expensive and heavy, but all of that is covered by these brand's typical products. They can command prices that would easily absorb the cost of batteries. And the size and weight of current cars mean that loading them up with batteries to achieve range comparable to their gas models wouldn't be a problem, either. Heck, that's the exact strategy being used by GM and Ford to get huge range in their electric trucks. 2020 Porsche Taycan Turbo S View 41 Photos And the cost of the EV technology shouldn't even be that great for Bentley or Rolls-Royce, since they're both owned by companies that are leaders in electric car development with existing technology and the ability to spread costs out over various brands.

2015 Bentley Mulsanne Speed unleashes a tidal wave of torque

811 lb-ft of torque puts the Mulsanne Speed out ahead of every so-called muscle car on the market and eclipses most million-dollar hypercars.
Those in the market for a sedan with equal levels of performance and luxury would do well to stop by their local Bentley dealership, and have a look at the Flying Spur. Though not available in Speed trim like the previous four-door Continental, the W12 model already packs the 616-horsepower 6.0-liter twin-turbo W12 from the Continental GT Speed - and we wouldn't be surprised to see the British automaker come out with an even more performance-oriented version in the future. But what about the Mulsanne?