Luxury brands are throwing their hats in the SUV market
Bentley has released the first photo of its production SUV – which is scheduled to be available for purchase in 2016. granted the photo doesn’t tell us very much, it only reveals the front end but it’s not enough to know if the designers implemented significant modifications to the EXP-9 design study.
What we can see is that the Bentley SUV sports two pairs of round headlights – just like the Continentat GT – with the outer ones being smaller. The other characteristic we can see is the brand’s imposing grille.
According to the company this will be the most luxurious and powerful SUV on the market, setting it apart from any other SUV, thus staying true to the brand’s hallmarks of luxury, performance, quality and craftsmanship.
There are no details as to the engine that the SUV will be sporting, but considering that Bentley has also said it will become the only producer of Volkswagen Group’s 6.0-litre W12 engine from the end of 2014, we can assume that the Bentley SUV will be powered by such a unit.
Now since Bentley is stepping into the SUV market, it means that other top luxury brands are taking notes and Rolls-Royce is the other one that we’ll be talking about.
The BMW-owner luxury brand has been considering entering the segment, especially because SUVs and crossovers are expected to make up half of the world car market in the near future.
According to the BMW board member in charge of Rolls-Royce, said that the long-term independent studies show that half of the world car market will be crossovers and SUVs. As such they see it as their responsibility to look into it and to analyze the possibility of a Rolls-Royce SUV.
Considering how Porsche and BMW started making SUVs, this shouldn’t be that much of a problems for Rolls-Royce.
