Back in 2004, Porsche surprised its customers when they revealed their first sports utility vehicle, the Cayenne. Plenty of people doubted Porsche’s entrance into the new market, but obviously Porsche had done their research seeing as the Cayenne was an immediate success. For a while the Cayenne’s only competition were the AMG tuned G-wagons from Mercedes and the Range Rovers, but today it seems we are about to witness a rapid growth in the luxury performance crossover market. We’ve seen sport utility concepts from high end manufactures like Bentley, Lamborghini, Maserati, and Aston Martin before, but now it seems that the plans for these respective brands are finally coming together. Although, these new and upcoming competitors might triumph over the current Cayenne in both luxury and performance. Lets take a look at what might soon be the next big purchase among America’s upper class.
In 2011, Maserati revealed the Kubang concept previewing what their Cayenne competitor might look like. Maserati now plans to put the vehicle into production in 2016 under the Levante nameplate. Initially the crossover will be powered by a V6, but plans for a high powered V8 model are in its future. This model more properly aligns with the current Cayenne in both expected price and power, but it still comes from a brand with no history in the crossover market.
The next manufacturer to confirm their plans for a high powered crossover is Lamborghini. Like Maserati, they showed us the Urus concept in 2012 to give their customers a look into what a new market segment for the brand might look like. The initial response was generally positive and Lamborghini just recently decided to green-light the model for a 2018 debut under the same name. No word on pricing or power outputs yet, but being Lamborghini it’s probably safe to assume that both power and exclusivity will be higher than the Cayenne and Levante. This therefore means that the Urus will be expanding the high powered crossover market into higher luxury territory. Enter Bentley and Rolls-Royce.
In 2012 Bentley debuted a particularly polarizing concept car called the EXP 9 F. This car previewed Bentley’s interest in entering the luxury crossover market and featured the company’s 6.0 litre W12 engine from the the Continental and Flying Spur. The engine choice and production ready look of the concept suggested that Bentley was serious about providing their customers with a family crossover with the performance to match. Unfortunately, thanks to its unique styling customers were not so quick to give Bentley the amount of orders they needed to move forward. Since then Bentley has been working on their restyled crossover model dubbed the Bentayga set to debut as a 2016 model. Although the car won’t be seen in production form until the 2015 Frankfurt Motor Show, recent spy shots show a much more familiar face for the crossover resembling its smaller brother the Flying Spur. Regardless, this hasn’t affected demand for the Bentayga because even though it has yet to be revealed Bentley has already received over 4000 pre-order deposits from customers. With this recent demand spike for Bentley, don’t expect Rolls-Royce to sit around and let their sales suffer. Rolls-Royce has been secretly working on an upcoming crossover model expected to debut around 2017. Spy shots have been circulating showing a Phantom based test mule that the brand has been working with to develop their new model. While Rolls-Royce’s cheapest model is the Ghost at $263,000 and Bentley’s is the Continental GT at around $193,000; don’t expect these new performance crossovers to be any cheaper.
With all this talk about six figure performance crossovers, the remaining names in luxury want a piece of the market as well. Aston Martin Showed an SUV concept in 2009 called the Lagonda which the brand wanted to introduce at a price around $250,000, although plans for this model never really developed. However, at this year’s Geneva Motor Show Aston Martin debuted the DBX crossover concept. The concept received positive feedback and Aston Martin has since raised over $300 million to further develop the model for a potential 2019 debut. Aston Martin hopes to attract a new customer demographic with the DBX.
These five manufacturers have confirmed their plans for entering the high end crossover market, but there are still plenty other rumors of further entries from other brands. One rumor suggests that Mercedes is working on ultra-luxury spec variant of its new GLS full-size SUV to be branded under the Mercedes-Maybach nameplate and cost a hefty premium over the standard GLS.
With American buyers shifting from minivans, station wagons, and family sedans to crossovers, it only makes sense that the luxury brands will follow the trend. Almost every other market segment within the auto industry has a luxury equivalent so why exclude one of the most profitable segments; crossovers. Soon the upper class family might drift away from their Escalades, Range Rovers, and Lexus crossovers to even more prestigious brands that can still fit their versatile needs.