Widely panned by junketing journalists at Geneva in 2012, Bentley now claims potential luxury SUV customers liked the concept.
Bentley Motors today confirmed that it would add a sport utility vehicle as the German company’s fourth model. The SUV will be made in the UK at Crewe and go on sale in 2016.
The Bentley SUV, crossover in current jargon, follows the successful strategy of Porsche building the V8-powered Cayenne off the Volkswagen Toureg platform that the Audi Q7 also uses. All four brands are now owned by Volkswagen Group. Bentley claimed it would be the “most luxurious and most powerful SUV in the market,” which means it will be a gas-guzzler.
Bentley claims the SUV would create more than 1,000 jobs. During the next three years, Bentley will invest more than £800 million in its headquarters at Crewe and the development of new models from Volkswagen platforms. AutoInformed suspects that most of the engineering will be performed in Germany.
Rolf Frech the current head of engineering at Bentley joined Porsche in 1983 and worked as an engine development engineer before taking responsibility for simulation and testing. Since becoming Porsche’s Director for Complete Vehicle Engineering in 2001, he has “been instrumental in the expansion of the Porsche model range including both the Cayenne and Panamera in addition to the sports cars” of Porsche, Bentley said in a statement when he was sent to Crewe in 2011.
The Prime Minster faces a tough election challenge from London Mayor Boris Johnson whose popularity is outstripping that of the Conservative Party and David Cameron.
UK Prime Minister David Cameron joined Martin Winterkorn, Chairman of the Board of Volkswagen Group for the announcement at Bentley headquarters.
“One sector that we know is sprinting ahead in the global race is our booming automotive industry, claimed a beleaguered Cameron.
“ One vehicle rolls off a production line somewhere in the UK every 20 seconds and we have just launched the Government’s Automotive Industrial Strategy to help continue this success for years to come,” the politician said.
The Prime Minster faces a tough challenge from London Mayor Boris Johnson whose popularity is outstripping that of the Conservative Party and David Cameron, according to a poll for The Independent on Sunday that was just released. Moreover, approval ratings of the ruling Tory party are only 24%, the lowest in recent memory.
When the first Porsche Cayenne rolled off the assembly line at the Leipzig plant in Eastern Germany during 2002, traditionalists scoffed at a Porsche SUV. The criticism was down to a murmur in 2012 when Leipzig made its 500,000 vehicle, coincidentally a Cayenne in a plant that also produces the Panamera – shock-horror, a four-door sedan! – and will soon produce the compact Macan SUV. Leipzig has now made its 500,000th Cayenne.
So powerful is the growing ‘green’ movement in Germany that Porsche felt compelled to include 2014 Cayenne CO2 emissions levels of 270 g/km to 189 g/km and fuel consumption (combined) of 11.5 l/100 km to 7.2 l/100 km. These are socially irresponsible in the view of critics. AutoInformed predicts that Bentley owners will embrace the crossover.
German Chancellor German Chancellor Angela Merkel in June killed a draft European Union law aimed at further reducing carbon dioxide emissions, which are directly proportional to fuel consumption. Merkel, also facing tough federal elections in September, said “This is also about employment,” a concept that has eluded EU politicians for more than five years as the economic crisis deepens, but not for the lavishly paid, fed, pampered and housed Eurocrats.
For light vehicles on sale in Europe, manufacturers are now required to ensure that their new car fleet does not emit more than an average of 130 grams of CO2 per kilometer (g CO2/Km) by 2015 and a ‘non-binding’ 95g by 2020. This compares with an average of almost 160g in 2007 and 135.7g in 2011. Automakers, led by the gas-guzzling German luxury car industry, welched on a voluntary deal to cut CO2 emissions at the turn of the century.
In terms of fuel consumption, the 2015 target is approximately equivalent to 5.6 liters per 100 km (l/100 km) of gasoline or 4.9 l/100 km of diesel. The 2020 target equates to 4.1 l/100 km of gasoline or 3.6 l/100 km of diesel.
Read AutoInformed on:
- Western European Car Sales Down Again in June
- Milestones – 500,000 Porsche Cayenne Made in Leipzig
- Porsche Leipzig plant builds 500,000th Vehicle
- Milestones – 50 Years of the Porsche 911New ACEA Head Announced as EU Crisis Continues
- First Look – Bentley Continental GT Speed Flagship
- Blower Bentley Sets £4.5 Million Auction Record
- Bentley Mulsanne Diamond Jubilee Debuts in Beijing
- Volkswagen Group Posts Record Profit of €11.3 Billion
- German Shuffle as Ulrich Eichhorn leaves Bentley Motors for VDA, Rolf Frech leaves Porsche to Head Bentley Engineering
