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Bruce Newton14 Jan 2015
NEWS

Bentley reveals SUV name

And relax Ford fans, it's not Falcon...
The Bentley SUV once tipped to be dubbed Falcon has instead been named Bentayga after a rugged mountain range in the Canary Islands.
And the VW-owned British luxury marque has confirmed the world will get its first look at the production Bentayga "later this year" before going on sale in 2016.
Revealing the name is the latest step in a steady dribble of information about Bentley's first SUV
Recently, there has been video issued of a prototype testing in Dubai, while an image of the production model's wing vent (pictured) was issued with the release revealing the Bentayga moniker.
"Bentayga is a name that reflects what we know our SUV will do better than any other car in the world – combine the best automotive luxury with outstanding performance to take the Bentley experience to new environments," Wolfgang Dürheimer, Chairman and CEO of Bentley Motors, said in the official release.
Separately, Dürheimer has told automotive media the Bentayga will come as a W12, V8 and plug-in hybrid. He has revealed the hybrid would be capable of covering 48km (30 miles) exclusively on battery power.
It is understood the hybrid could be a V6 petrol in some markets and a diesel – Bentley's first – in others.
The Bentayga will be underpinned by the Volkswagen Group MLBevo architecture, which debuted under the new Audi Q7 revealed at the Detroit auto show overnight.
The next Cayenne, Volkswagen Touareg and recently confirmed Audi Q8 SUV 'coupe' are also expected to use MLBevo. It might also underpin the forthcoming Lamborghini Urus.
The Bentayga, which had carried the same tag as the Australian-built Ford Falcon inside and outside Bentley during its development, will join the Continental, Flying Spur and Mulsanne in the company's line-up. 
It is expected to be more expensive than any current luxury SUV including the famed Range Rover, which currently tops out at more than $260,000 in Australia. 
Dürheimer said previous forecasts of 3000 sales per annum for the Bentayga "could be conservative" as the company had already received 4000 expressions of interest for it. He also hinted that a smaller SUV could reach production as the company strives to almost double sales to 20,000 by 2020.
Bentley's SUV project has not had the smoothest path. It first appeared as the heavily criticised EXP 9F concept car at the 20012 Geneva motor show. As a result an immediate exterior redesign was ordered.
New Bentley chief designer Luc Donckerwolke has publicly stated the Bentayga is "completely different" to the EXP 9F.
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