Bentley’s First-Ever SUV ‘No-Brainer,’ CEO Says

PALM SPRINGS, CA – Skeptics wondered if Porsche knew what it was doing in 2003 when it introduced the Cayenne, its first CUV.

The doubtful questioned why a German luxury brand known for fast sports cars would enter the CUV segment. But the Cayenne soon proved there was a place in the growing market and in Porsche’s lineup for a fast and agile ute.

Rolf Frech at the time was a Porsche engineer who helped spearhead the Cayenne’s development.

Now he is doing something similar as the engineering overseer for Bentley, an aristocratic British automaker introducing its first-ever SUV, the Bentayga.

“How many people have the opportunity to do something like this twice?” Frech, Bentley’s board member-engineering, tells WardsAuto at a press preview of the Bentayga, billed as the fastest, most powerful, most luxurious and most exclusive SUV in the world.

It’s a departure for a 97-year-old company that until now has only made ultra-luxury cars.

“Four years ago, no one would have predicted a Bentley SUV,” says Bentley Chairman and CEO Wolfgang Durheimer.

“Uncharted territory for us,” Winkler says of Bentley’s venture into SUV segment.

“This is uncharted territory for us,” says Michael Winkler, the automaker’s president and CEO-the Americas.

“The fact that it is a brand-new car and brand-new concept and a brand-new platform is something a small company like Bentley, as exclusive as it is, doesn’t do very often,” he tells WardsAuto.

Bentley sells about 10,000 vehicles a year worldwide. The company hopes to increase that by 50%, largely because of anticipated Bentayga sales. The vehicle starts at $229,100 in the U.S. and goes on sale in May.

Getting into the SUV market makes sense because the segment is so strong, especially in America, Winkler says.

“In the U.S., the passenger-car market is 8 million a year and we have a small share of that. But we are missing out in a market that has 6 to 7 million SUVs. To enter that segment is exciting and a bit daunting.”

Bentley is part of the Volkswagen Group. Its portfolio includes other iconic luxury brands such as Bugatti, Lamborghini and Porsche.

The corporate decision was to go all-in with the Bentayga. “There’s no sense in doing it if you are not going to do it 100%,” says Winkler. About $1 billion went into the project.

For Bentley, that means the usual game plan of creating a stunning interior that includes a double-wing dashboard design flowing from door to door, metal mesh accents and designed-from-scratch leather seats of a diamond-quilted pattern inspired by tailored hunting jackets. 

The exterior showcases Bentley’s signature design but with an SUV look. There’s the familiar matrix grille flanked by flush all-LED headlamps, aluminum side panels and a rear end that incorporates Bentley’s “horseshoe” motif.

But the automaker intends for the Bentayga to be more than just a pretty SUV debutante. So product developers made it fast and rugged with a new engine and a sophisticated suspension system.

“What’s particularly exciting is that no other SUV has its breadth of abilities,” Winkler says. “It offers extreme performance, with a top speed of almost 190 mph (306 km/h) and with the brakes and suspension to go with it. At the same time, it can do off-road things all the benchmark SUVs can do.”

Providing the power is an all-new 6.0L W-12 twin-turbocharged engine. Bentley bills it as the most advanced 12-cyl. engine in the world. It delivers 600 hp at 6,000 rpm. It flexes a lot of muscle with 663 lb. ft. (900 Nm) of torque from 1,250 to 4,500 rpm.

The immense power and torque result in lighting speed of 0-60 mph (97 km/h) in 4 seconds and a top speed of 187 mph (301 km/h)

Delivering all that power is an 8-speed automatic transmission. It and the vehicle’s 4-wheel-drive system have been reinforced to handle the demands of off-road driving.

Also all new is an active suspension system created to deliver on-road stability and off-road prowess. It is the world’s first vehicle to use a 48V system for its electronic roll-control technology.

Called Bentley Dynamic Ride, the system uses sensors, actuators and super capacitors to instantly counteract lateral rolling forces. Driving modes include four for off-roading.

The Bentayga shares a platform with the Cayenne and VW Touareg.

Much of the media-preview program here is devoted to showing what the vehicle can do. Activities include high-speed laps at the Chuckwalla Valley Raceway, rock climbing on an off-road setup off the Palms-to-Pines Highway and sand-hill driving at the Imperial Dunes.

Will Bentayga Owners Really Go Off-Road?

Does Bentley expect many Bentayga owners to go off road like that?

“No, not many will,” Winkler says. “But the point is to have the credibility to do that, and this vehicle does. It’s not a so-called soft-roader. It is a real off-roader, if you choose to do that.”

Frech says knowing you can do something even though you might not readily do it is a powerful part of automotive ownership when it comes to the likes of SUVs and sports cars.

“It’s like the Porsche 911. Not many people take it to a race track, and yet you could,” he says.  

Bentley brass expects Russia and the Middle East to become strong markets for the Bentayga. “I predict China will be a major market,” says CEO Durheimer.

As for the U.S., where the truck segment of SUVs, CUVs and pickups totaled 57% of the market last year, “the Bentayga was a no-brainer,” he says.

Bentley’s factory in Crewe, England, is set to produce 5,000 Bentaygas a year. Because of handcrafting, building each vehicle takes about 130 hours, 10 times longer than a conventionally produced vehicle.

“My biggest job will be to increase production capacity,” Durheimer says. He predicts Bentley by 2025 will double annual production to 20,000 units “without compromising exclusivity.”      

Bentley has 200 dealerships worldwide and 45 in the U.S. One of those stores is part of the Suburban Collection in Troy, MI, a group headed by David Fischer.

Suburban just replaced its original Bentley store with a new one that is bigger and airier.

Fischer beside Bentayga at his new Bentley dealership.

At the new facility, Fischer tells WardsAuto, “I’m so pleased we did this. (As a retailer), you need to give Bentley an appropriate home. This wasn’t a case of should we or shouldn’t we.”

The new facility was built based on Bentley’s expectations of increasing sales from 10,000 to 15,000 units a year, says David Butler, Suburban’s executive manager.

The automaker expects to attract buyers who are new to the brand as well as current Bentley owners.      

Winkler explains: “Every Bentley buyer has on average five or six cars in their family garage. Two of those cars tend to be premium SUVs. For us, the obvious place to go is in getting them to replace those premium SUVs with a Bentley in the true luxury segment.  

“You do have upper-end premium SUVs that are priced highly. But where do you go from there? We are the first ones to occupy the space of true-luxury SUV.”

Putting an SUV on the market “absolutely is the right thing to do,” says auto analyst George Peterson, president of AutoPacific.

“In the market, there was empty space above the current highest-price SUV, the Range Rover,” he says. “The Bentayga can fill that space for wealthy people who want to make a statement and use their money.”

Big markets for Bentley in the U.S. are Florida and California. Butler says metro Detroit buyers range from professional sports personalities (he declines to name them) to “entrepreneurs who’ve done well for themselves.”

Suburban has yet to sell a Bentley to an auto executive from domestic automakers based in metro Detroit. “We haven’t had (General Motors CEO) Mary Barra stopping by to buy a Bentley,” Butler says.

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