Bentley's SUV to enter markets in 2016

Luxury car maker Bentley on Wednesday released the first picture of its new designed SUV, saying the vehicle will hit roads in 2016. At a press conference held in London on Wednesday, Wolfgang Schreiber, chairman and chief executive of Bentley Motors, said the design of the SUV is completely different from the looks of the 2012's EXP 9 F concept. With its name still unknown, the chief executive said the SUV has many changes from the rear to the roof. Schreiber said the SUV will be the first Bentley to get a hybrid powertrain. It will compete with high-end SUVs from other car makers such as BMW and Range Rover, while the price of a Bentley SUV might be the most expensive of its kind. "It is getting closer, and you will see the car on the roads in 2016. It will create a completely new segment in the SUV market," said Schreiber. As a part of Bentley's investment of 800 million pounds (1.3 billion U.S. dollars) in new models and facilities development in the next three years, the company anticipates the minimum annual sales volume of the new SUV will reach 3,000. Meanwhile, the chief executive announced that the Bentley factory in Crewe, Cheshire of England will produce all its W12 engines by the end of 2014. But some of the engines are still manufactured in Germany. "It will be the world's largest producer of 12 cylinder engines," he said, adding that the engines will be exported for the very first time in its history. The firm plans to produce up to 9,000 engines per year at peak times. The high performance engine offers high levels of power and torque, which has been used in Bentley's Continental GT, GTC and Flying Sour before, while the engines might be exported to Audi in the future.