Off-road opulence

Platinum or emeralds on your dashboard? With the new ultra-luxury Eterniti Hemera SUV, drivers with a taste for the finer things in life may request whatever their imaginations desire.

London-based Eterniti debuted both its brand and its first fully engineered Hemera SUV prototype at the biennial auto show in Frankfurt.

Focused on the high-end SUV segment, Eterniti gives customers the option of requesting a broad range of custom materials and alterations to the Hemera's base model.

Designed with Asia in mind

Funded by a group of private investors, Eterniti is the latest brand aiming to tap into growing demand for luxury SUVs in emerging markets.

"We're seeing a strong growth trend in this segment," said Henner Lehne, the forecast director at IHS Automotive in Frankfurt. He expects SUV sales in Asia to increase by 56 percent by 2017.

The Hemera was specifically designed with Asian customers in mind. Eterniti says the car is based on "the most dynamic version of VW Group's latest-generation large SUV platform," otherwise known as the Porsche Cayenne.

The cabin is to be re-engineered to give passengers sitting in the back of the vehicle an additional 100 millimeters (almost 4 inches) of legroom. The two rear seats, separated by a central console, will be fitted with matching iPad tablet computers.

"In China, customers want both the option of being chauffeured and driving themselves," said Eterniti's brand and communications head, Mark Carbery. "The additional legroom satisfies this demand."

With an estimated base price of 170,000 euros ($235,000) - more than double the price of a Cayenne Turbo - the Hemera will feature that car's 4.8-liter twin-turbo V8 engine. Eterniti does, however, plan to tweak the motor to produce over 620 horsepower and a top speed of around 290 kilometers per hour (180mph).

While Eterniti acknowledges that its Hemera cannot compete with the likes of well-established brands in terms of sales volume, it will bring its product to the market quickly, producing a projected 30 units in 2012 and 100 vehicles in 2013.

Luxury brands turn attention to SUVs

High-end heavyweights like Maserati, Bentley and Aston Martin are also expanding their line-ups to take advantage of growth in the luxury SUV market.

Maserati showcased its Kubang SUV at the Frankfurt Auto Show. Drawing upon synergies with its sister brand Jeep, Maserati based the Kubang on Jeep's market mainstay, the Grand Cherokee. It will, however, be powered by an engine produced by Ferrari in Maranello and coupled with a new eight-speed automatic transmission.

Meanwhile, British automaker Aston Martin is trying to convince investors to bankroll the production of its Lagonda SUV, which debuted as a concept at the Geneva Auto Show in 2009.

"Just as we have revived Aston Martin over the past 10 years, we could do the same with Lagonda," Aston Martin's chief executive Ulrich Bez told Reuters in Frankfurt. "But we would need investors to finance it since we cannot using just our own cashflow."

"They do not necessarily need to own shares in Aston Martin directly, they could provide funding as limited partners, so a finance investor would be preferable."

Bez said the Mercedes-Benz GL could serve as a solid base for an Aston Martin SUV - provided Daimler saw commercial gain in the possible venture.

Fellow British carmaker Bentley also hinted in Frankfurt that it would soon release a long rumored SUV.

"We have no shortage of ideas for the future," Bentley chief Wolfgang Dürheimer said at the Frankfurt Auto Show. "The Bentley wings would sit beautifully on the bonnet of a new quintessentially British four by four vehicle. Watch this space!"

Porsche, pioneers of performance SUV market

Bentley's chief is familiar with launching a successful luxury SUV. As the former head of research and development at Porsche, Dürheimer was instrumental in bringing the Cayenne SUV to the market.

Arguably the pioneer of the high end SUV segment, Porsche's Cayenne was widely derided when it entered production in 2002 but has since become a veritable cash cow for the Stuttgart-based company.

"This year, the Cayenne will account for around 47 percent of overall sales at Porsche," industry analyst Lehne said. "We expect SUV sales to grow steadily with the introduction of Porche's smaller SUV, the Cajun, in 2013."

The Cayenne has made such a big impact on Porsche's bottom line in part because profit margins for luxury SUVs are extremely high.

"Bentley and Aston Martin are trying to chase the Cayenne's success," Lehne added. "But don't expect them to match the Cayenne's sales."

"In terms of volumes, they are more likely to sell 3,000 models per year versus the 25,000-50,000 that Porsche is targeting."

Author: Sarah Kelly
Editor: Sam Edmonds

Sarah Kelly is a Humboldt German Chancellor Fellow based in Berlin.