Though the division was still in its relative infancy at the time, customers had plenty of choice for a luxury sports SUV back in the mid 2010s. Range Rover’s luxury Autobiography line, for instance, was already into its second decade. Maserati would have a relatively fruitful, if short, run with the Levante, and, by 2015, after a rough start with its (ahem) ‘boldly’ styled EXP 9F concept, Bentley was hitting the ground running with the Bentayga SUV. Across in Germany, BMW and Mercedes topped 150 mph with their 555-horsepower X5 M and 503 hp ML63 AMG, respectively. And in North America, Cadillac’s third-gen Escalade, while playing fast-and-loose with the term ‘sporty,’ packed a mammoth 6.0-liter V8, and could still hit an electronically limited 113 mph.
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