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Land Rover have been dropping rather large hints recently that the company are ready to take the Range Rover way upmarket to compete with the likes of Bentley's SUV.
The Bentley EXP9 Concept was officially revealed in 2012 at The Geneva Motor show and a rather heavily revised production model is expecting to be hitting the car market by 2015. The price tag of the model is expected to be in the region of £174,000, 200,000 Euros.
John Edwards, who is the brand director for Land Rover explained that the company has been monitoring events rather closely. He explained that the company has a chessboard approach to the car market. They evaluate where they currently are and then see if they can go up or down, left or right. So, if they were to look up, the Bentley SUV presents an opportunity for Land Rover. He went on to express that he believes the Range Rover is a truly phenomenal car and he believes there is definite potential to be able to move it more upmarket.
On the previous version, the company did an Ultimate edition which cost £125,000. Only 200 were planned originally though in the end around 600-700 were sold. With regards to the current model, the Supercharged Autobiography is £99,000 and this can be pushed up to £110,000 or £120,000 with extras.
Edwards explained that there is a healthy demand from overseas and research indicates that there are a large number of wealthy customers, who own a number of cars like Bentley's and Aston Martins, though 99% of them if asked which car they would choose if they could only have one, would pick the Range Rover.
With the possibility of the Bentley model having a W12 engine, making the Range Rover more powerful is definitely an option. Though sources have said that this is rather unlikely due to the company feeling that the 5.1 0-60 miles per hour second time is perfectly acceptable for a bulky car like the Range Rover. Edwards went on to say that Power would definitely be something that would be looked at, though individuality and more personalisation for Range Rover owners presents bigger opportunities.