PARIS MOTOR SHOW: Range Rover looks upmarket

The launch of the $420,000 Bentley Bentayga and the development of Rolls-Royce's first-ever SUV means Range Rover may push even higher into the pricing and equipment stratosphere than its current flagship, the $368,710 SVAutobiography long wheelbase (pictured).

Range Rover has been the traditional King of the ultra-luxury SUV segment, but the W12 Bentley has reset the benchmark for both price and performance, something that has not gone unnoticed at Jaguar Land Rover.

"It shows we have got headroom and I think Range Rover as a brand has got headroom for sure," JLR's global sales operations director Andy Goss said during a media roundtable at the Paris motor show yesterday.

"Is Bentley more aspirational than Range Rover? I don't think so.

"Bentley is a great car brand and they have done a fabulous job, but I don't see many car brands that are more aspirational than Range Rover.

"It is never out of place in any environment. So why can't we go further? Of course we can go further."

For all bar a miniscule percentage point of the world's population, the fight for a share of the flagship 4x4 market is a total irrelevance.

But for the companies involved the few thousand units the segment accounts for globally is massively worthwhile for the significant profit margin involved in these vehicles.

There's a share of corporate ego involved here too, as the three British marques blue over bragging rights, even if two (Bentley and Rolls) have German parents and JLR is owned by the Indian Tata Group.

"Is there a detailed plan to go further at the moment? No. But is it possible? Is there headroom there? On the Range Rover brand, I think there is," added Goss

Currently, ultra-high end SVAutobiography Range Rovers are modified by JLR's two-year old SVO division, which also looks after SVR-badged performance models and the as yet unseen SVX badge for high-performance off-roaders.

Its most recent Range Rover SVAutobiography addition has been the Dynamic short wheelbase model, which borrows the 404kW supercharged V8 engine from the Range Rover Sport SVR. That goes some way to bridging the power gap to the 447kW Bentayga.

But what a $400,000-plus Range Rover would compromise in terms of equipment and performance and who would potentially build it, Goss wasn't saying.

"Truth is there's not that plan at the moment, but if you ask that theoretical question with Bentayga could Range Rover go further the answer is yes."

Goss said the advent of Bentayga and the Rolls-Royce now being developed under the name Cullinan, as well as other potential entries from the likes of Benz luxury brand Maybach wasn't necessarily a bad thing for Range Rover, which has held sway in this market since its launch in 1970.

"They [Bentley] are generating a huge level of interest in the segment and that means that people start to have choices and sometimes they bring things forward.

"I don't think it's a problem and it's a bit trite as a corporate guy to say it's an opportunity. I am not saying it's an opportunity, it's just a fact.

"They [Bentley] have produced a car there; it's not mass volume. They know we are the King; we are always going to be the King in that segment there. That's a fact and that's our intention there.

"Do we look at what they do and think 'yep that's interesting?' Yep we do and I think a lot of customers would look at the car and they will probably try it.

"And I think a lot of customers are probably thinking 'I might come out of some other type of vehicle and I will look at the Bentayga and I have to look at the Range Rover as well'.

"That's probably the fact of the matter.

"I think in practice cars like that tend to expand the segment because they create interest."