The future Bentley lineup is going to look a lot more diversified. The British luxury carmaker announced that it’s considering a smaller SUV in its model range depending on the reception of its first new Bentley SUV, officially named Bentayga, which will finally be revealed later this year.
According to Bentley CEO Wolfgang Durheimer, Bentley has enjoyed its fifth consecutive year of record sales. However, Bentley is completely missing the lucrative SUV market, which is apparently expanding three times faster than the market as a whole.
When Bentley first looked into the SUV market, the company proposed an initial plan to sell 3,000 full-size SUVs annually. Given the continued rising popularity of SUVs in emerging markets, Durheimer believes the 3.000 sales figure is conservative.
The new SUV is only a taste of what’s to come at Bentley in the next couple of years. In fact, Wolfgang Durheimer is aiming to produce 20,000 vehicles a year at Crewe by 2020. The most important part to this ambitious plan will be Bentley’s all-new £280 million R&D center which will be constructed this year. An additional £840 million will be invested by 2016 to ensure the Bentley plant will have the capacity to build more vehicles.
At this point, details on the smaller SUV is limited. However, sources claim the first full-size SUV will delivery ultra-luxury amenities as well as Bentley’s signature W12 power unit. Additional engines will also include a V8 as well as a plug-in hybrid model.
Stay tuned in the months ahead as we learn more about Bentley’s latest full-size SUV and its smaller sibling.
By Danny Choy
PHOTOS
