The public reaction to the Bentley crossover prototype a year and a half ago was negative / F. COFFRINI / AFP

Yesterday, Bentley Motors (part of the Volkswagen Group) announced the final decision to launch the crossover. It will be the fourth model of the British brand in addition to the luxury sedans and coupes Mulsanne, Flying Spur and Continental. The car will be produced in Crewe, England, and will go on sale in 2016, the company said. Bentley will invest more than 800 million pounds sterling ($1.23 billion) in the development of production of the new model over three years. “This will be the most luxurious and powerful” crossover on the market, Bentley promised.

Bentley unveiled the EXP 9 F concept SUV as a possible prototype for a future production model in the spring of 2012. The company received mixed reviews about the potential model's design and interior. But in January 2013, Bentley President Wolfgang Schreiber said the manufacturer was close to a final decision on producing its own crossover. He said the car's design would be rethought and brought into line with the traditions and style of Bentley's existing model range. In March 2013, company representatives confirmed the imminent decision on production and said that the crossover could be produced not in Crewe, but at the Volkswagen plant in Bratislava - along with the Volkswagen Touareg, Audi Q7 and Porsche Cayenne, with which the car will share a platform.

The company has not disclosed the design or technical specifications of the new car. Its base price is expected to be around 180,000 euros ($237,000), Bloomberg reported yesterday, citing its sources.

The main demand for the new model is expected to come from Russia and China, Jonathan Poskitt, an analyst at British LMC Automotive, told Bloomberg.

Bentley Russia CEO Gunther Boehringer told Vedomosti that Russian Bentley owners “appreciated” the concept car during closed screenings last year. He said there were already preliminary orders, but did not disclose their number. With the new luxury product, “we will set new standards in the concept of luxury,” Boehringer promises.

Schreiber previously said that the new SUV would be produced in a volume of 3,000-4,000 units per year. In 2012, Bentley sold 8,510 cars, 22% more than the year before. But Volkswagen's goal is to increase Bentley sales to 15,000 cars per year by 2018, Bloomberg notes.

The Bentley crossover has a chance to become a hit on the market, as happened with the Porsche Cayenne released 10 years ago, says Oleg Datskiv, director of Auto-dealer.ru. Porsche still positions itself as a manufacturer of sports cars. But the crossover has become so popular that it quickly began to account for about half of all the company's sales.

Bentley is already selling well, but the crossover is a very successful segment for luxury cars, he notes. This is an intermediate niche between executive limousines, more suitable for middle-aged people, and sports cars, which are more popular with young people. In Russia, the new model will be in demand also due to local road conditions, Datskiv believes. In our country, all Bentley crossovers that will be imported will be bought; the car will be disassembled at the pre-order stage, without going into detail about how the crossover will look, what its characteristics will be, the expert is sure. For successful people who want to emphasize their status, the price is important - and the higher it is, the better, Datskiv reminds. According to his estimates, the Bentley crossover will cost 270,000-300,000 euros. Porsche Cayenne in Russia costs from 4 million to 11 million rubles. (94,000-258,000 euros), notes Vladimir Mozhenkov, a member of the board of directors of the Avtospetstsentr group of companies (including a Porsche dealer).

Any crossover in Russia is doomed to success, especially if it is a Bentley, he agrees. And it does not matter what platform the new model will have - developed by Bentley or already used by the VW concern, Mozhenkov is sure: the price niches are different, and buyers of luxury goods do not go into production details.

Bentley bets on crossover