????賓利（Bentley）或任何一家超豪華汽車廠商打算生產SUV的想法都曾讓一些汽車品牌的高管不以為然地一笑了之。不過現在他們再也笑不出來了。保時捷（Porsche）推出了卡宴（Cayenne）。瑪莎拉蒂（Maserati）、蘭博基尼（Lamborghini）、捷豹（Jaguar）、阿爾法羅密歐（Alfa Romeo）都在開發SUV。甚至連寶馬（BMW）的子公司勞斯萊斯（Rolls-Royce）也在考慮開發一款——我敢打賭他們肯定會把這個想法付諸現實。

????新一代錢包鼓鼓的消費者不會認為SUV有失優雅。賓利已經算是最不跟風的了——但2016年它也將屈尊從俗，推出一款自己的SUV，這是賓利董事會負責營銷的凱文?羅斯上周在洛杉磯的明確表態。

????批評人士對賓利在2012年日內瓦車展上推出的較早款SUV毫不客氣地狠批了一頓。于是賓利放棄了這個設計方案，目前新款車型正在該公司位于英國克魯郡的總部進行研發。

????推出超豪華SUV的原因很簡單：這種車賺錢。高端客戶就想在自己的豪車收藏室里收入這種車，愿意花上幾十萬美元買它們。而且不管怎么說，他們早就買了路虎攬勝（Range Rover）、奔馳G系列越野車（Mercedes G-Wagons）和凱迪拉克凱雷德（Escalades）。實際上，賓利發現它的客戶中有30%的人已經擁有一輛路虎攬勝了。

????賓利SUV是能賺錢的，因為它的母公司大眾公司（Volkswagen）已經為保時捷卡宴和大眾途銳（Touareg）的車體架構和工程技術投了錢。在卡宴的骨架上植入賓利的血肉要比從頭開發省錢多了。

????賓利總裁沃爾夫岡?施萊博這個月在斯托克向《前哨報》（The Sentinel）暗示，全新SUV可能會搭載暫不說明的“綠色技術”——可能是指混動引擎。

????他說：“對我們現有車型的技術平臺來說，要搭載混動系統不重起爐灶是不可能的。”他還表示，將來新SUV可能會是純電動版的。

????The idea that Bentley, or any ultra-luxury automaker, would manufacture a -- shudder! -- sport-utility vehicle once provoked a condescending chuckle from brand executives.

????No longer. Porsche now offers Cayenne. Maserati, Lamborghini, Jaguar, Alfa Romeo all are developing SUVs. Even Rolls-Royce, a subsidiary of BMW, is considering one -- and I'll lay odds it will happen.

????A new generation of wealthy consumers sees nothing déclassé about SUVs. Bentley has been among the last holdouts -- and that will end in early 2016, when its SUV comes to market, Kevin Rose, Bentley board member for marketing, confirmed last week in Los Angeles.

????Critics panned an earlier version of a Bentley SUV shown at the 2012 Geneva Auto Show. Bentley scrapped its initial design, and the new version is being developed at the company's headquarters in Crewe, England.

????The reasons for building an ultra-luxury SUV are simple: They make money. High-end customers expect to see them in showrooms, will pay the hundreds of thousands they cost, and, in any event, have been buying Range Rovers, Mercedes G-Wagons, and Cadillac Escalades in the interim. In fact, Bentley discovered that 30% of its owners already own a Range Rover.

????A Bentley SUV could add to the bottom line since its corporate parent, Volkswagen, already has invested in the architecture and engineering used for the Porsche Cayenne and VW Touareg. Grafting Bentley flesh onto a skeleton borrowed from Cayenne is far less costly than developing from scratch.

????Bentley chairman Wolfgang Schreiber hinted to The Sentinel newspaper in Stoke-on-Trent, England earlier this month that a new SUV could include unspecified "green technologies" -- perhaps a hybrid engine.

????"For our existing models with their technology platforms," he said, "it wouldn't be possible to create a hybrid without starting again and doing it all from new." At some point, the new SUV could be offered as an electric vehicle, he said.