As Rolls-Royce ponders its future in the SUV market, Bentley is already off to a promising start. Bloomberg is reporting that ahead of the 2016 Bentley Falcon even being officially unveiled, about 4,000 potential customers have already stepped up to show interest in the SUV->ke145. Remarkably, that’s more than the 3,000 units that Bentley is reportedly planning to build annually.
The price for the Bentley Falcon has still yet to be set. In the past, we’ve heard pricing varying anywhere from £130,000 to £200,000 ($196,000 to $302,000 as of 1/9/2015), and this newest report puts the expected price of the new Bentley around $214,000. This, of course, doesn’t even factor in the different options including powertrains, which will drive the price even higher. Again, while no official details have been announced, Bentley->ke15 has confirmed its SUV will eventually be offered with a plug-in hybrid powertrain, and it is also expected to come with a high-output W-12 engine.
In adding the SUV, Bentley is hoping to increase its global sales to 15,000 units by 2018, which stands as a 36-percent increase over the next three years compared to the 11,020 units it sold in 2014. That. Last year, Bentley’s global sales were up 9 percent with 29 percent of all cars sold in the U.S. (3,186 units -- up 1.4 percent) and 24 percent sold in China (2,670 units -- up about 22 percent). Moving forward, these two markets will continue to be important with the launch of the Falcon.
Beyond this SUV, the report also said that Bentley is considering adding yet another model to its lineup, although no further information was given.
Click past the jump to read more about Bentley's future SUV.
Why it matters
When it arrives, Bentley promises that the 2016 Bentley Falcon will be the most exclusive and most expensive SUV ever made, so having 4,000 hand-raisers already interested in the new model bodes well for the brand’s decision. With a goal of selling 3,000 of these SUVs annually, the Falcon will play a pivotal role in helping Bentley increase its global sales goal of 15,000 units by 2018. In the meantime, we should expect to see a production version of the Bentley Falcon arrive sometime this year with units rolling into showrooms (mostly in the U.S. and China) sometime next year.