Bentley Bentayga

The Bentley Bentayga is a four-seat (with the option of having five seats), five-door luxury SUV built with unibody construction, a Volkswagen Group W12 engine and full-time all-wheel drive. It is based on the Volkswagen Group MLB platform, the same platform used in the second-generation Audi Q7 and the future third-generation Porsche Cayenne and Volkswagen Touareg, but 80% of the parts are unique.

The Bentayga is Bentley's first production SUV, and it is an evolution of the 2012 Bentley EXP 9 F concept car, though the final design had not been unveiled as of early 2015. The heavily camouflaged test cars that had been photographed so far indicate that the Bentayga will look much closer to the Flying Spur in terms of styling than the EXP 9 F.

Bentley formally introduced the Bentayga at the International Motor Show Germany in September 2015. Production began on 27 November 2015 at Bentley's Crewe factory, as a 2016 model.

Development

Bentley's first production SUV was first previewed as the Bentley EXP 9 F concept car at the 2012 Geneva Motor Show. The car was based upon Volkswagen's PL71 platform, powered by a 6.0-litre W12 engine producing 600 hp. The production version was announced on July 2013. It has since been redesigned to sport a more conventional look, due to the design not being received well by critics.