In a few years, wealthy folks will have a plethora of luxury SUVs to choose from---even if the companies building them won't deign to actually call them SUVs.
Rolls-Royce is building a "high-bodied" vehicle able to "cross any terrain." Aston Martin is cooking up a crossover but insists it's not an SUV. Meanwhile, the catalog of spinoffs like the "sports activity coupe" from BMW and Mercedes continues to expand.
So it's nice to see Bentley embrace the SUV moniker wholeheartedly with the Bentayga, a new model built on the same platform as corporate sibling Porsche's Cayenne. Set to hit dealer lots sometime next year, it will be the first car to receive a new twin-turbo W12 engine that puts out more than 500 horsepower and pound-feet of torque.
Of course, just because Bentley is calling its new vehicle an SUV doesn't mean that buyers will pay $300,000 to take it rock crawling. It's much more likely to spend some time on a country lane with some pesky leaves on it, or, at worst, on a snow-covered road leading up to a ski chalet. It's for that daunting prospect that Bentley has taken the Bentayga to Sweden for cold weather winter testing.
We don't see much of what it will actually look like (it's still camouflaged), nor do we see it plowing through powder Jeremy Clarkson-style (it's driving around a huge snow track).
Still, it's a Bentley SUV driving around in the snow! Just the thing for a sweaty summer day.
