Bentley Batur by Mulliner

The Batur by Mulliner is an eighteen-customer-car coachbuilt coupé introduced in August 2022. It combines a new Bentley design direction with the final development era of the W12. Later engineering releases identify two development vehicles separately and quote a 750 PS powertrain reference. The launch image illustrates a pre-production Batur, rather than an identified customer chassis.

Bentley Batur by Mulliner at a glance

A coachbuilt coupé with a separate model identity

Batur follows Bacalar within Mulliner’s contemporary coachbuilt programmes, but it has its own closed coupé body and design brief. This makes it a separate vehicle profile rather than a Bacalar variant or a Continental finishing edition. Look at the front lighting, grille and long bonnet line together. They establish a different face and surface treatment within recognisable grand-touring proportions. The closed passenger compartment also changes the relationship between the cabin and the rear body compared with the roofless Bacalar. A collector archive can connect the two programmes while preserving their different shapes, customer populations and introduction histories.

The eighteen-car customer programme

Bentley’s August 2022 announcement limits the Batur to eighteen customer examples, with the allocations already reserved. This profile retains eighteen as the announced programme limit; it does not treat reservation as an independently verified completion census. The later development release identifies Car Zero and Car Zero-Zero separately from the customer cars. That distinction is important for a small coachbuilt programme. A presentation or engineering car can look finished and still have a different role from a customer commission. Record that role explicitly in captions and individual files, rather than allowing every photographed Batur to enter the same customer-car count by assumption.

Launch output and later development figures

The launch refers to more than 740 PS, while Bentley’s June 2023 development account gives a 750 PS peak output reference. The later figure belongs to a later stage of the programme and should be labelled accordingly. The profile therefore does not present the launch’s threshold and the development figure as contradictory universal measurements. It is also important to retain PS as the unit rather than relabelling the same number as bhp. In a technical archive, the date and unit are part of the specification. They allow readers to follow how a low-volume model’s engineering account developed between introduction and readiness for customer production.

New design direction with an established engine family

Bentley introduced Batur as a preview of a new design direction while retaining the W12 powertrain. This combination is central to its story. A car can point toward a future visual language without using the propulsion system imagined for every future model. The profile keeps the body-design discussion separate from the actual engine reference. That makes the comparison with EXP 100 GT especially useful: the concept explored a broader future experience, whereas Batur turned a different design proposal into a defined coachbuilt coupé programme. Neither vehicle needs to be described as an already electric customer model to explain its influence on Bentley’s design conversation.

The development cars have individual identities

Bentley’s engineering report names Car Zero and Car Zero-Zero as separate development vehicles. These cars were used to establish the new model’s readiness and are outside the eighteen-customer-car scope. Their individual finishes and testing roles can make them important subjects in their own right, but a general Batur profile should not invent customer chassis identities for them. The launch photograph is accordingly captioned as a pre-production presentation. For a particular Batur, retain its original programme role, build information and specification. This allows an archive to describe a highly finished prototype accurately without implying it was one of the commissioned customer deliveries.

Materials and personal commissioning

The manufacturer describes extensive personalisation, with selected natural-fibre and gold-component options among the available approaches. Those choices do not make every Batur mechanically or visually identical to the launch car. A customer commission should be documented through the original specification and photographs of its actual completed surfaces. The closed cabin provides another setting for bespoke work than Bacalar’s exposed cockpit. Study how the veneers, trim and controls form one passenger environment rather than examining expensive materials in isolation. An archive can explain the scope for individuality without assuming an optional component was fitted to every car or treating a launch presentation as a universal customer specification.

Reading the pre-production launch image

The factory launch photograph presents the Batur’s broad front, slim lights and sculpted body in a studio setting. It illustrates the actual manufacturer model presentation, with the pre-production context retained in the caption. The image is not assigned to a numbered customer chassis or labelled as the later Batur Convertible. That precision matters because the coupé and convertible have separate programmes, and development cars can appear in many subsequent settings. For a useful collector record, start with what the source establishes about the pictured vehicle, then use the general model account to explain its design. The source and editorial permissions remain linked to the photograph.

Batur in the wider W12 and coachbuilding story

Batur is most informative beside Bacalar, EXP 100 GT and the limited W12 Continentals. The comparisons reveal different reasons for rarity: a design demonstrator, a roofless coachbuilt model, an eighteen-car coupé programme and commemorative editions within a production family. Batur’s own identity combines a separate body with a late-stage W12 engineering reference and individual commissioning. Its place in the archive does not depend on assuming every allocation was complete at the date of the launch. The programme can be understood through the documented introduction, later development milestone and clearly scoped customer limit, while individual completed cars retain their own histories.

Frequently asked questions

What is the Batur customer-car limit?

Eighteen coupés. This profile stores the announced limit separately from a completed individual-car census.

Are Car Zero and Car Zero-Zero included?

Bentley identifies those two development cars separately from the eighteen-customer-car programme.

Why is 750 PS used in the specification?

It is Bentley’s June 2023 development reference, later than the more-than-740-PS launch description.

Does this profile include Batur Convertible?

No. It covers the coupé programme. The convertible has a separate body identity and programme scope.

Explore related vehicle profiles

• Bentley Bacalar by Mulliner
• Bentley EXP 100 GT
• Bentley Mulsanne 6.75 Edition by Mulliner

Sources

• Bentley — Batur launch, 21 August 2022
• Bentley — Batur development complete, June 2023; two development cars identified
• Bentley — Batur model programme

Facts are sourced to the linked manufacturer, institutional and specialist records. Design comparisons and documentation suggestions are editorial analysis. Announced limits and completed production populations are labelled separately.

Photography and credit

Batur in Bentley’s August 2022 launch presentation; pre-production model shown, separate from the eighteen customer-car programme. Photo: Bentley Motors / Bentley Newsroom · Editorial reproduction only. Resized and JPEG encoded without cropping or content changes. Bentley permits editorial reproduction only, excluding advertising, marketing and sales-related use. Copyright Bentley Motors; individual photographer not identified.