Everyone knows by now that Bentley->ke15 plans to unveil "the world’s most luxurious 4x4" SUV sometime after 2015, but the company has now revealed that it will be the only SUV in the world to feature a W12 engine: "We will be first to use a 12-cylinder petrol engine in a luxury SUV. I like this idea; it makes clear whose car is the boss," said Bentley CEO Wolfgang Dürheimer.

Moreover, the Bentley SUV will be designed in such a manner that it won't just carry the W12 engine, but a V12 engine as well. And that's because the company plans to offer a a V12 TDI version of the SUV a few years after its launch. The W12 engine will be a next-generation version of today’s W12 unit used in the Continental->ke3108 family, and the V12 TDI will be a next-generation version of Audi’s 493bhp 6.0-liter V12 TDI currently being in the Q7->ke1083.

However, don't expect the new SUV before early 2015: "The production date will be dictated by the cyclicity of models," Dürheimer said. "The Mulsanne->ke3495 came in 2010, then the Continental no more than a year later. The lifespan of a model is usually six to eight years, so the new model will be valuable when we are expecting a lull. The downswing is the time to introduce this SUV."

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