London - Bentley is set to move production of all its W12 cylinder engines to Britain from Germany by the end of this year, after reporting a record 2013 profit on Wednesday.
The firm, bought by Volkswagen in 1998, said it would produce all of its 12 cylinder engines at its Crewe facilities in central England by the end of 2014, and expects to be producing a total of 9000 engines by 2017/18.
Currently some 5000 engines are manufactured in Crewe, with a remaining few thousand made in Salzgitter in Germany.
The increase in the number of engines would lead to Bentley exporting engines to cars made outside of Britain for the first time, with some to be used in as-yet unspecified Audi and Volkswagen models.
Bentley, which posted a 67 percent jump in operating profit to a record 139.7 million pounds, has been making its ultra-luxury vehicles including the flagship Mulsanne limousine at its factory in Crewe since 1946.
Reuters