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Odds are on Bentley Mulsanne replacement to be a flagship SUV

Volkswagen Group brand Porsche sells SUVs so that it can afford to pour money into its segment-defining sports cars. For fellow VW Group brand Bentley, that math doesn't work; Porsche sold around 280,000 cars last year, more than 190,000 of them the Cayenne and Macan, compared to Bentley's total sales of 11,006. The English maker, recently recovered from trying times, must therefore be especially choosy about apportioning resources when deciding what to build. When the company looked at the prospects for the Mulsanne, Bentley realized that developing a four-door sedan replacement wouldn't pay off, so designers fashioned the new Flying Spur into a kind of Mulsanne Lite. If a new model from Crewe ascends into the $300K-plus arena, odds are it will be a crossover. In comments to various outlets over the past few weeks, including Top Gear, Car, and Car and Driver, Bentley CEO Adrian Hallmark didn't explicitly admit the arrival of a big-money crossover. However, he said almost everything one could say without admitting it. His comments were previewed last year by those of Werner Tietz, the Bentley board member for engineering. On the subject of updating the automaker's lineup, Tietz told Autocar Bentley's goal is to sell to new customers, and for that, "There is some potential when you look at SUVs too, especially around a car larger than the Bentayga if you consider its value to the Chinese and American markets. So, yes, that is one opportunity we are exploring." Five years ago, talk about a Bentayga variant centered on a sleeker coupe style, not something bigger and badder, but much has happened since then. Hallmark explained that the market for mid-six-figure big sedans has dropped to 1,000 sales worldwide, chopped up between the Mulsanne and Rolls-Royce Phantom. Roughly 90% of Mulsanne sales are to under-40s in China and over-60s in the U.S. While "it's a great business ... it's a shrinking business" because aging Mulsanne buyers in the U.S. don't want to drop another half million dollars on a daily driver, opting for a Flying Spur or Bentayga instead. As for the Chinese market, the CEO confessed to Car, "[If] we did a — not to give you the answer — if we did a longer wheelbase Bentayga, every single one of those Mulsanne customers in ChinaÂ… would take that instead."  The Bentayga soaks up almost half of Bentley sales.

Bentley confirms SUV for 2016

It looks like the addition of a Royal Baby isn't the only big news coming out of the UK this week. Bentley has ended all of the will they/won't they speculation by confirming today that it will produce an SUV. Earmarked to go on sale in 2016, the as-yet unnamed Bentley SUV will help create an extra 1,000 jobs in the UK.
While no concrete details have been released, Bentley says that it will be the "most luxurious and most powerful SUV" on the market. Past rumors have indicated that the SUV could look completely different from the 2012 EXP 9 F Concept shown above, be renamed the Falcon and offer options like a plug-in hybrid version and three-row seating. To prepare for a fourth model in its lineup, Bentley will be investing 800 million British pounds (around $1.2 billion USD) into its Crewe headquarters and production lines over the next three years. Scroll down for Bentley's press release officially confirming the new SUV.

Bentley Flying Spur Mulliner Blackline Specification loses the chrome

Bentley's future is not as bright as its past — at least when we're talking about exterior trim. The blacked-out Blackline Specification package that the firm introduced on the Continental GT earlier in 2022 has been so popular that it's now available on the Flying Spur Mulliner. Unveiled on the sidelines of Monterey Car Week, the Flying Spur Mulliner Blackline Specification ditches nearly every piece of bright exterior trim. Designers replaced the chrome bits with gloss black trim and painted the door mirror caps in Beluga Black. The grille and the Winged B hood ornament keep some of their bright accents, and buyers can order black 22-inch wheels with polished pockets at an extra cost. Bentley left the interior untouched, meaning buyers can configure it to their liking. And, there are no mechanical modifications: The Blackline Specification package is offered on the hybrid-, V8-, and W12-powered variants of the Flying Spur Mulliner. In its quickest configuration, meaning with a twin-turbocharged, 626-horsepower 12-cylinder under the hood, the big sedan hits 60 mph from a stop in 3.7 seconds. Pricing for the Blackline Specification package hasn't been announced. We're guessing it's not cheap, but that's unlikely to deter buyers: Bentley announced that nearly 20% of Continental GT Mulliner buyers have ticked the Blackline Specification box since its introduction. At the other end of the Mulliner spectrum, the limited-edition Batur coupe is scheduled to make its debut during Monterey Car Week as well.