Bentley considering Porsche Macan rival

Bentley looks likely to follow up its first SUV with a compact model that shares its underpinnings with the Porsche Macan and Audi Q5.

The British brand will introduce its full-sized Bentayga SUV in 2016 as an alternative to machines from Range Rover or Porsche, and the upcoming Rolls-Royce crossover.

Bentley product manager Hans Holzgartner, the man at the core of its new Mulsanne Speed flagship, confirmed that the company is pursuing a second SUV that would echo the relationship between Porsche's large Cayenne and compact Macan luxury SUVs.

"There is definitely a market for it," he says.

"It's absolutely not a signed-off project right now, it's not something we have a specific time plan for, but it's certainly an area of the market we are looking at, yes."

While the official line from Bentley is that such a car is worthy of consideration, Holzgartner says plans for such a model are ticking away in the background.

The engineer confirmed that such a car must share its platform with other models within the Volkswagen group and that Bentley was already invested in modular layouts used by machines such as the Audi Q5 and Porsche Macan.

"We are certainly looking at it," Holzgartner says.

"We'd look to do a platform share. What we do at Bentley is we don't just take an existing platform and put a Bentley top hat on it... we do get involved in the development of the platform right from the beginning.

"We get our requirements in right from the beginning, they're not just kind of bolted on at the end as an afterthought."

An affordable Bentley positioned above the Macan could easily double Bentley's sales in SUV-friendly markets such as Australia. The Macan is currently Porsche's best seller and Bentley is already looking for big things from the Bentayga.

The classic brand is considering other models but will soon have to choose which option to back for production, predicting what will be popular and profitable several years into the future.

Holzgartner likens it to "a game of chess".

"You have to protect for as many eventualities as you can think of but also bear in mind that anything you do has a financial impact," he says.

"You make an assessment and you think of what's the likelihood of us using that platform for X, Y and Z.

"If there is a high possibility of that happening then you think 'well, there's a need and there's a reason for putting some investment in there'."