Eterniti Motors: a new UK-built luxury SUV (2012)

A new British car company will launch at the 2011 Frankfurt motor show - Eterniti Motors - and its first car will be a luxury crossover.

Incredibly, the new bespoke manufacturer will be based in London, where it says it will design and assemble its new top-end cars.

The first model, which doesn't have a name yet, will be a crossover in the mould of the Lagonda SUV: a £150,000-200,000 luxury 4x4, based on the mechanicals of a mainstream crossover. We're not sure who yet, but who'd bet against the innards of a Range Rover/BMW X5/Merc ML?

Apparently deadly so. The brief announcement today claims there is a suite of international backers to the enterprise, although no figureheads have been revealed yet. The full story will be announced on 13 September at Frankfurt, but there will be two further announcements before then.

A spokesman said: 'There are people with lots of experience of motorsport, luxury cars, high-performance road cars and driving experts involved. This is a fully UK project.'

Sounds to us like Eterniti Motors will be powered by some former bigwigs from the industry. People of the calibre of Martin Leach, ex-Ford of Europe and Maserati boss, perhaps.

The company was registered in September 2010 and is registered to an address in Stevenage, Hertfordshire.

Apart from this design sketch, very little else is being said about the five-door Eterniti 4x4. The company vows first deliveries will be made in 2012 and says there will be a high level of bespoke manufacturing.

'The car will be very well equipped as standard, but we will do whatever personalisation the customer wants,' said a spokesman. 'If they want a diamond-encrusted rooflining, we will do it.'

The crossover is the first in a small range of cars and the official hinted that a high-performance model would follow the crossover.

By Tim Pollard