Bentley plotting all-new sports car

Bentley is keen to deploy an all-new two-seat sports car that blends high-performance, luxury and technology.

But there's a catch… If it steps on the toes of sister brand Audi's R8, it could be scotched.

The elite British luxury car-maker has showed the EXP 10 Speed 6 and EXP 12 Speed 6e  concept cars at various motor shows over the past two years, and has been canvassing customer appetite for such a vehicle ever since.

The objective within the company is to green-light a new production vehicle.

The head of technical operations at Bentley's bespoke division Mulliner, Uday Senapati, said there is "definitely" customer demand for something like the Speed 6, which would become the most agile, sporty vehicle from the British brand.

"We're testing the market all the time," said Senapati of a Speed 6 two-seat sportster.

Before the Continental was being considered, everyone said "that's a bad move", explained the Mulliner technical operations chief. And the same sentiment accompanied the Bentayga SUV. Both those vehicles have proven to be successful for the brand.

"On similar lines, when we floated the idea of a two-seater sports car, that's been received extremely well. And for once people haven't said 'this is not the right product for Bentley' so it's a guaranteed success," he said of the Speed 6.

As a rival to Rolls-Royce, British brand Bentley has a tidy portfolio at present. The Continental range -- a series of large two-door grand tourers, have proved popular. There's the traditional Flying Spur and larger-still Mulsanne four-door sedans and of course the Bentley Bentayga SUV tops off the list as the brand's top-selling model.

So is the company ready to push the go-button on an all-new model and deploy a fast and sexy image car?

"The car itself we like, and we've got a business case. We've done a lot of development work," he confirmed to motoring.com.au.

Senapati said there's been significant internal discussions within the company about expanding the range to include a slinky new coupe/roadster. And because Bentley is part of the Volkswagen Group, which includes Audi and Porsche, finding a platform to base the car on won't pose a problem.

"That's the best part of being part of the [Volkswagen] Group. This group has probably got the best technology currently. And they're pushing the right kind of things," he observed, adding that an electrified drivetrain was a must.

"With the autonomy we've got, being based in the UK and unlike many other car companies in the segment, we've got our own R&D centre and our own design centre in England, and we do everything from there. So we've got the best of both worlds, all the tools and techniques and ability to it."

Clearly there's a huge amount of momentum behind the project within Bentley, but that doesn't mean it's a slam dunk.

"From within Bentley, definitely yes [there's momentum]. But we're part of a big group and it has to work with the rest of the group … Because we are a portfolio of brands, we can't be overtly competing against each other."

Quizzed over whether a direct rival for the Audi A8 rival was a no-no, Senapati responded: "Exactly. So if we can create a niche segment for it, then yes [we can do it]."

One way to achieve a point of difference from the R8 would be to deploy an electric powertrain in the Bentley Speed 6. The R8 is expected to remain with a naturally-aspirated V10 for at least the rest of this generation – another five years, give or take.

"The battery-electric propulsion system, again we've done a lot of research and development on that," said Senapati.

"How we combine those and whether that [two-seat sports car] will be the vehicle carrying that propulsion system or not -- those are the kind of decisions we're looking at making it now."