All posts by Francis Mitterrand

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McLaren Artura Spider MCL39 Championship Edition

McLaren doesn’t do subtle when it’s celebrating. After bagging its tenth Formula 1 constructors’ championship and handing Lando Norris a long-awaited drivers’ title, the company did what any proper supercar maker would do: it turned a race car into a road car in spirit, then made only ten of them so everyone else could feel left out.

Meet the Artura Spider MCL39 Championship Edition, a hyper-exclusive riff on McLaren’s entry-level hybrid roadster that exists for one reason—to remind the world who won last year. And, because this job was handed to McLaren Special Operations, the brand’s bespoke skunkworks, it’s done with the kind of obsessive attention to detail that makes regular special editions look like rental cars with decals.

The first thing you notice is the paint. This isn’t vinyl wrap or a sticker kit—it’s hand-painted in Myan Orange and Onyx Black, echoing the livery of the title-winning MCL39 Formula 1 car. It’s dramatic without being cartoonish, which is harder than it sounds. Look closer and you’ll find a star-filled “10” to mark McLaren’s tenth constructors’ crown, along with graphic outlines of McLaren’s past championship-winning F1 machines ghosted into the bodywork. It’s history, literally baked into the paint.

The wheels go full stealth mode: Super-Lightweight Dynamo forged aluminum ten-spokes, finished in gloss black with black detailing. Behind them sits a sports exhaust that makes absolutely no effort to hide. Given that modern F1 cars sound like angry vacuum cleaners, this is probably the closest thing you’ll get to a McLaren race-car soundtrack that still stirs your spine.

Inside, McLaren didn’t forget why this car exists. The cabin keeps the light-and-dark contrast going, with Jet Black Nappa leather and Performance Carbon Black Alcantara broken up by Myan Orange accents. A bold orange stripe marks the 12-o’clock position on the steering wheel, just in case you forget you’re in something special. The headrests wear an embroidered “10” in McLaren Orange, and the carbon-fiber door sills are signed by Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri—a rare moment where autographs actually belong on a car.

There’s also a nameplate listing McLaren’s wins, poles, and fastest laps from last season, which feels less like bragging and more like a trophy case bolted to the dashboard.

Underneath all the championship theater, the MCL39 Edition is still very much an Artura Spider, and that’s a good thing. Its electrically assisted 3.0-liter twin-turbo V-6 makes 700 horsepower, launching the car to 100 km/h in 3.0 seconds. It’s fast, yes—but more importantly, it’s the kind of fast that reminds you McLaren knows how to build road cars that feel like racing machines rather than tech demos.

Only ten people on the planet will get one. They’ll get a hybrid supercar, a Formula 1 trophy, and a rolling piece of McLaren history all in the same garage bay.

Everyone else just gets to stare—and maybe dream a little louder.

Source: McLaren

News

Why HVO100 Might Be the Cleanest Trick in the Diesel Playbook

By the time the auto industry finishes arguing about whether electrons or hydrogen will save the planet, the planet will have politely asked us to hurry up. That’s the inconvenient truth behind transport’s CO₂ problem: there are already about 250 million vehicles rolling around Europe, most of them burning fossil fuel, and they’re not going anywhere soon. So while the long-term shift to new powertrains grinds on, the fastest lever we can pull is a simpler one—change what goes into the tank.

That idea isn’t new. Bio-blended fuels have been around for years, but in the UK they’re still just that: blends. Regular petrol and diesel remain overwhelmingly fossil-based, with a splash of renewables mixed in for good behaviour. What is new is the growing push toward fuels that are 100 percent fossil-free and don’t require you to buy a new car—or even lift the bonnet.

They’re called “drop-in” fuels, and the name says it all. These are chemically engineered to behave just like the petrol or diesel they replace, meaning they won’t upset injectors, seals, or engine management systems. Increasingly, major carmakers are giving them the nod—sometimes across entire engine families, sometimes for vehicles built after a certain date.

Right now, the poster child of this movement is HVO100.

What Is HVO100, and Why Should You Care?

HVO stands for hydrogenated vegetable oil, though that undersells what it really is: a synthetic hydrocarbon diesel made from renewable raw materials. You’ll also hear it called renewable diesel, and unlike conventional biodiesel (the FAME-based stuff blended into UK pumps at around seven percent), HVO is chemically much closer to fossil diesel.

That matters. FAME biodiesel can cause compatibility issues in some engines, which is why it’s only used in small percentages. HVO100, by contrast, behaves so much like traditional diesel that, once approved by the manufacturer, it can be used neat—100 percent renewable, no blending required.

In other words, you fill up, drive away, and your car has no idea anything changed. The planet, however, very much does.

Carmakers Are Quietly Getting on Board

The momentum behind HVO100 is no longer theoretical. Stellantis last year fully validated its diesel engine range for HVO use, noting that many of its Euro 5 and Euro 6 engines were already compatible. BMW has gone even further, using HVO100 as a live demonstration of how quickly fleet emissions can be cut without waiting for everyone to switch to EVs.

The logic BMW put in front of fleet operators was refreshingly blunt: yes, electrification matters—but so does the fuel burned by the hundreds of millions of existing vehicles. Increase the proportion of renewable fuel in those tanks, and Europe’s CO₂ footprint drops almost immediately.

Since January, BMW has been putting its money where its filler cap is. Every diesel BMW built in Germany now leaves the factory with five to eight litres of HVO100 already in the tank, depending on model. The fuel comes from Neste MY, a Finnish producer whose HVO delivers up to a 90 percent reduction in CO₂ emissions on a well-to-wheel basis compared with fossil diesel.

“Well-to-wheel” is the key phrase there. It doesn’t just count what comes out of the tailpipe, but also the emissions created while sourcing, processing, refining, and transporting the fuel. In other words, it’s the full life-cycle carbon bill—and HVO100 still wipes the floor with conventional diesel.

BMW has approved all of its diesel passenger cars built from March 2020 onward for HVO100 use, with other manufacturers taking a similar date-based approach.

Not a Silver Bullet—but a Very Sharp One

Let’s be clear: HVO100 isn’t a magic wand that makes diesel guilt-free forever. But it is a remarkably effective stopgap—and maybe more than that. Unlike waiting for a full EV rollout, this is a solution that can be deployed right now, into the cars people already own, with almost no behavioural change.

No new charging infrastructure. No new engines. Just a cleaner liquid in the same old tank.

In a world obsessed with what’s coming next, HVO100 is a reminder that sometimes the fastest way forward is to fix what we already have. And for an industry desperate to cut carbon without hitting the brakes, that’s not just convenient—it might be essential.

Source: Autocar

News

Chery Adds Lepas to Its Growing UK Lineup

If you thought the UK had reached peak Chinese-car saturation, Chery would like a word. The fast-expanding automaker has confirmed that Lepas, its fourth brand for Britain, will land later this year, joining Omoda, Jaecoo, and Chery itself in what’s quickly becoming one of the most aggressive foreign market pushes in recent memory.

Lepas isn’t just another badge-engineering exercise. Chery says the brand was conceived specifically for Europe, and its name—apparently a mash-up of leopard, leap, and passion—suggests it wants to feel more energetic, more aspirational, and more premium-adjacent than your average budget import. Whether it lives up to that promise remains to be seen, but the intent is clear: this is Chery aiming for mainstream dominance, not niche curiosity.

Two Crossovers, Three Powertrains, One Big Strategy

Lepas’s UK debut will be built around two compact crossovers, the L4 and L6. They’ll ride on Chery’s T1X modular platform, which also underpins the Omoda 5, Jaecoo 5, and Jaecoo 7. That might sound like corporate copy-paste, but it’s actually the point: massive shared volume equals lower production costs, which equals more competitive pricing.

Both models are expected to be offered with internal combustion engines, plug-in hybrids, and full battery-electric drivetrains—what China calls “new energy vehicles.” In other words, Lepas isn’t picking sides in the powertrain wars. It’s selling whatever the customer wants, which is exactly how you grow market share fast.

Styling: Familiar, But Not Accidental

Design-wise, Lepas walks a careful line. The cars take heavy influence from Chery’s Tiggo SUVs while also nodding toward European brands like Audi, with smooth surfaces, rounded edges, and a quietly upscale vibe. That’s not a coincidence. Chery wants Lepas to feel like a European-market brand, not a Chinese transplant.

The tricky part is internal competition. When you already sell multiple crossovers at similar sizes and prices, things can get messy. Chery’s management knows it—so much so that one internal presentation was literally titled “Too many brands?”

Their solution? Reposition everything.

  • Tiggo will go chunkier and more family-focused.
  • Omoda will lean into sharper, more aggressive, polygon-heavy styling.
  • Jaecoo will keep its outdoorsy, rugged image.
  • Lepas will sit in the sleek, modern, urban space—more style-led and tech-forward.

It’s not unlike what Volkswagen Group has done for decades, only Chery is doing it at hyperspeed.

Volume Is the Weapon

Chery isn’t pretending this is about art or brand purity. It’s about numbers.

“By offering different brands on the same platform, the volume is very big and that gives us a good price,” said Chery International president Zhang Guibing—and that one sentence explains the whole strategy.

And it’s working.

Last year, Chery’s three UK brands captured 2.65 percent of the British new-car market, beating Mini, Tesla, and BYD. That’s not a foothold—that’s a beachhead. With Lepas joining the party and more models coming across the board, Chery could soon be rubbing shoulders with brands like Renault, Skoda, and Kia.

Lepas isn’t just another crossover brand. It’s a signal that China’s carmakers are done playing on the fringes of Europe. They’re not here to sell a few bargain EVs—they’re here to compete head-on with the industry’s biggest names, in the heart of one of the world’s most brand-loyal markets.

If Chery gets the pricing right—and history suggests it will—Lepas could become the one that finally makes buyers stop asking, “Why would I buy a Chinese car?” and start asking, “Why wouldn’t I?”

For a company already outpacing Tesla in the UK, that’s a terrifyingly plausible future.

Source: Autocar