Bentley Bentayga diesel due in April

Bentley has sprung a nasty surprise on archrival Jaguar Land Rover, announcing its diesel Bentayga SUV undercuts the price of the Range Rover SVAutobiography by as much as $7000.

The prestige brand will preview the triple-turbo V8 diesel variant at the Australian Grand Prix next year, ahead of customer deliveries from around April.

At yesterday's media event at the Bentley Be Extraordinary Tour stand, David Simpson, Bentley's Asia/Pacific Manager, Dealer Sales told motoring.com.au that he anticipates prospective buyers for the new variant will be those who admire Bentley as a brand and all it stands for, but also want to be able to tow things.

"I think Bentayga has reached out to a new type of customer," Simpson said.

"Someone who collects a lot of vehicles – someone who has a Ferrari [for instance, and] feels like a Bentley SUV is something that makes a lot of sense for them to have."

It's clear the prestige importer is expecting Bentayga diesel to do (relatively) big numbers. For the year to date, the petrol Bentayga has sold 34 units, or nearly 25 per cent of Bentley's total sales volume for 2016. It's fair to expect the diesel will achieve stronger sales still once it reaches the local market.

"Certainly when you look at something like a Bentayga diesel, Australia's a massively diesel market. We know that Audi Q7 didn't lead with a petrol engine, that [Maserati] Levante hasn't opened with a petrol engine; and we think that there's a useability to an SUV, that there is range in a diesel, and there is accessible performance in our car," said Simpson.

"It'll be a triple-turbo diesel – and it will still be a true Bentley. It will still be appointed like a Bentley, and I think that speaks to a whole new demographic of customer, who were not considering Bentley before. I think there's an awful lot more that a Bentayga diesel can offer an Australian customer that our previous cars perhaps haven't been able to."

Given the asking price for the upper-class off-roader, it seems difficult to believe even the well-heeled would buy Bentayga diesel for crossing the Simpson Desert or fording rivers in the Daintree. So what do people want from Bentayga diesel?

"This is certainly something our Australian customers have spoken to us about... the towing capacity," Simpson replied.

"Our car is unbelievably capable off-road; it does incredibly well in any kind of test that someone's run as an off-roader. But we know the majority of our business is inner city, and these are people who live in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne – and a lot who live in the CBD.

"A lot of our customers, especially Gold Coast as an example... they have recreational vehicles, they have recreational things; they will sometimes tow a trailer to a summer house for the weekend, and they welcome the fact our car has a very high towing capacity.

"So yeah, there is certainly a difference in our Australian customer [in] that they have a lot more recreational use for a vehicle than a lot more of our inner city customers, say in Taiwan or Shanghai for example...

Does that make it more a weekend vehicle than a daily driver then?

"I would say that certainly, with a lot of the features that we've put into the car now, it has City Safe and it has Park Assist, and it has all of these systems to try and help a driver in heavy traffic conditions, in inner city conditions, as well as the weekend towing capability.

"It's very easy with start/stop adaptive cruise control in a city to essentially have that car take you through a city in high traffic.

"We think it's a capable all-rounder as much as anything. I would just say that more Australian customers have more weekend use than some of our other customers. That's perhaps what it is.

"They have more recreational use, but certainly that car is perfectly suited for inner city driving: Its commanding driving position – above a lot of other vehicles – as well as just something that's very easy to drive, a very safe and comfortable environment, I guess."

Returning to the question of a sales forecast for the new variant, Simpson was guarded concerning actual numbers, but exuded confidence the Bentayga diesel will add significant sales volumes to the total.

"We don't try and predict too far down the line in terms of how Bentayga will affect the rest of the range. At Bentley we don't build one more car than what the market demands, so we're very eager to see how Bentayga will land in the market. We never really try and put too many figures behind exactly how many that will be, but we certainly think it's going to be a strong part of the portfolio."

Simpson says that the Bentayga diesel, more so perhaps than any other model in the Bentley range, would provide an ideal platform for a distinctly 'Aussie' model – built in even smaller numbers than the norm for a Bentley.

"What we would be interest in is fine-tuning down to the types of colours and trims and options that our Australian customers are looking for, and in the future – as we did with Black Speed – we'll try and deliver something that's very Australia-specific, limited edition, something that is truly unique, just to this market.

"Bentayga diesel lends itself very well to a future limited edition...

"Our future vision for Australia is to try and supply the right cars that our customers are demanding, but also to give them something special that only an Australian customer can access."

To do that would be to know who the typical Bentley Bentayga buyers are. Even with some petrol Bentaygas sold here already, Simpson is uncertain how broad the target buyer demographic would be for the Bentayga generally... and the diesel variant more specifically.

"In the year one of Bentayga we've seen a lot of our current customer base, who have come and said that they already own a Bentley from the rest of the range – and they still want a Bentayga. So we would know who those customers are quite well.

"Certainly Bentayga has introduced a brand new customer that we've never had before in the brand: a Range Rover customer, for example, who's buying the top, top Range Rover because he wants the best SUV that he can get. And all of a sudden there's a new, best SUV on the planet.

"We're certainly trying to target new industries, new people who have not been part of the brand before, by using Financial Services. So, people who are perhaps asset-rich and cash-poor – for property development for example... but at this point who don't have the initial deposit to lay out on a car, but would love to see themselves in a Bentley.

"They now have the means with Financial Services to do that, and we think there'll be a lot more up-and-coming entrepreneurs and a lot of property developers who would be a new type of customer."

Mention of the company's new financial services arm, which is Porsche Financial Services rebranded for Bentley clients, begs a question: Has the arrival of the Bentayga forced the prestige importer's arm? Does Bentley need to offer in-house financing to secure buyers for the Bentayga, in contrast with the company's passenger-car clientele?

"We were looking at Financial Services across the entire range..." Simpson replied.

"I think it's probably a coincidence that they've come at the same time. I think it works perfectly well with Bentayga diesel... that's a very utilitarian car. It's a car that people are going to see a lot of value in, because they're going to get a lot of range out of that vehicle.

"Financial Services will make a lot of sense to them, and they'll understand that they will use that car over a long period of time, and why not spread the cost of the car out?

"It wasn't deliberately timed...

"As I say, you can have Financial Services on the entire range. If you were to walk into a showroom right now, we have an offer on the '399' car [Continental GT V8 and Flying Spur V8, each for $399,000], which is $3990 a month, but any car in the range with any options you can walk in and alter the deposit or the payment terms, or however it is.

"So I would say it is more of a coincidence, but it is fortuitous that next year we will have a Bentayga diesel with an established Financial Services in the market."