CarBrandLogos archive · Bentley · 2015
Crewe's first high-riding car, and within a couple of years its best-seller.
Discover the storyPhoto: Alexander Migl · CC BY-SA 4.0
The story
Explore the ideas, engineering and context that shaped the Bentley Bentayga, then continue into its specifications and place in the marque's lineage.
01
Bentley spent years insisting it would not build an SUV, then showed the EXP 9 F concept in 2012 and was told in unusually direct terms that the design was wrong. The production car, substantially redrawn under SangYup Lee, went on sale at the end of 2015.
Bentley motif - Flickr - exfordy · Brian Snelson from Hockley, Essex, England · CC BY 2.0
02
It is built at Crewe on the Volkswagen Group's MLB Evo architecture, shared with the Audi Q7, Porsche Cayenne and Lamborghini Urus, with a body and interior developed entirely by Bentley. The launch engine was the twin-turbocharged W12, marketed at the time as making this the world's fastest SUV; a V8 and a plug-in hybrid followed, and some markets received a V8 diesel with an electrically driven supercharger to sharpen its low-speed response.
Bentley Bentayga · © M 93 · CC BY-SA 3.0 de
03
Commercially it settled the argument. The Bentayga overtook the Continental GT to become the company's best-selling model within a few years of launch, and the money that funds hand-trimmed interiors, low-volume coupés and the Mulliner coachbuilding operation now comes largely from a five-door with a raised ride height.
Bentley Bentayga - Interior · Y.Leclercq · CC BY-SA 4.0
At a glance
Produced
2015–presentEngine
Petrol engineDesigner
SangYup LeeBody
5-door 4x4Technical specification
Badge at launch
This is the marque emblem that accompanied the Bentayga's era. The full identity timeline is documented in the brand archive.
Explore the logo history →From the journal
Contemporaries from the 2010s
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