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Bentley SUV For 2016

Topics: Bentley

Bentley SUV For 2016

Geoff Maxted
DriveWrite
September 17, 2013

Bentley make some great cars, there‘s no denying it. Their sporting Continentals are so fabulous that just standing next to one cures most ills. Now, the Company plan to move into the SUV market. It expects its ultra-luxury SUV to create its own new segment when it begins sales in 2016.

If it looks anything like the EXP 9F (pictured) concept they showed in 2012 it will certainly stand alone, like an ostracised white elephant at a grey elephant convention. Fortunately, the word is that there has been some radical redesigning.

Reported to be priced at slightly more than £150k, the SUV will be more costly than any similar vehicle currently on the market. Even the ticket on the mighty top-of-the-Range Rover will pale into insignificance and that’s the target competition. Effectively Bentley want to make the RR second best. It is unlikely that Jaguar Land Rover will take this lying down.

The Bentley SUV will have a 12-cylinder engine that produces between 575hp to 650hp depending, and will share its architecture with Audi and Porsche all-wheel-drive vehicles, according to the Company, which kind of suggests a posh Cayenne.

It will be offered in various flavours and with four, five or seven seats. The vehicle will have high ground clearance and will be as capable off-road as the Range Rover - they say - whether on the dunes of the Middle East or the wet grouse moors of Britain. Bentley are also considering offering other body styles under the Continental name but it is doubtful they’ll be any cheaper.

If this new SUV has a serious make-over and loses the house-brick silhouette it should do well amongst those with the wherewithal to afford it. Whether, at any price, it will have the beating of the Range Rover is another matter entirely.