Tag Archives: SUVs

News

Jeep Reveals the Design DNA Behind Its Award-Winning SUVs

Winning a design award is one thing. Explaining why your designs continue to resonate with buyers decades later is another. Jeep is doing both.

Fresh off taking home the 2026 Car Design Award for Brand Design Language, the iconic SUV maker has offered a closer look at the philosophy behind its vehicles by releasing a design sketch that distills the defining elements of every modern Jeep. More than a styling exercise, it’s a visual manifesto that shows how the brand balances nearly 85 years of heritage with the demands of electrification and modern mobility.

Presented by an international jury of automotive journalists since 1984, the Car Design Award is among the industry’s most respected honors. This year’s judges praised Jeep for preserving its unmistakable identity while successfully evolving into the electric era—a transition that has challenged even the most established automakers.

Despite the shift toward battery-powered models, Jeep’s signature seven-slot grille remains front and center, accompanied by the trapezoidal wheel arches and upright proportions that have defined the brand for generations. According to the award jury, those instantly recognizable cues prove that a brand can embrace new technology without abandoning its roots.

“Jeep has a strong heritage that we respect when developing each new model,” said Daniele Calonaci, Design Director for Enlarged Europe. “It is this heritage that at the same time encourages us to continue to develop and improve the brand.”

That philosophy extends well beyond styling. At Jeep, designers insist every feature serves a purpose, whether it’s improving visibility, increasing durability, or enhancing off-road capability.

The newly released sketch highlights the characteristics that have become synonymous with the brand. Short overhangs improve approach and departure angles, generous ground clearance helps conquer rough terrain, while pronounced wheel arches and rugged structural elements prepare the vehicles for obstacles that would stop most crossovers in their tracks. These aren’t simply aesthetic flourishes—they’re functional components born from decades of off-road development.

Durability remains another cornerstone of the Jeep formula. Protective cladding, reinforced bumpers, and additional shielding for vulnerable components—including the underbody, headlights, and radar sensors—are designed to withstand the abuse that comes with venturing beyond paved roads. It’s a reminder that Jeep still builds vehicles with genuine trail use in mind, even as urban commuting becomes the primary mission for many owners.

The brand’s growing lineup also reflects changing customer expectations. Buyers can now choose from traditional gasoline engines, hybrid powertrains, plug-in hybrids, and fully electric models, giving Jeep one of the broadest propulsion portfolios in the SUV segment. Yet regardless of what’s powering the wheels, the company says each model is expected to deliver the same blend of everyday usability and all-terrain confidence.

Practicality hasn’t been overlooked, either. Jeep’s trademark boxy silhouette isn’t just a design signature—it’s also an efficient way to maximize interior space. Folding rear seats open up as much as 1,560 liters of cargo capacity, while numerous storage compartments throughout the cabin reinforce the brand’s focus on everyday versatility.

The design sketch serves as more than a celebration of an award-winning identity. It offers a glimpse into the blueprint guiding Jeep’s future, one where recognizable styling, authentic capability, and functional design continue to shape the brand as it enters the next chapter of electrification.

For Jeep, preserving its identity has never meant standing still. Instead, the company is proving that some of the best automotive designs evolve without losing sight of what made them iconic in the first place.

Source: Jeep

News

Toyota’s Mystery Three-Row EV Is Almost Here

Toyota’s slow-burn teaser campaign just took a sharp turn toward the real world. The company has finally dropped its first official photo and video of its upcoming SUV—and confirmed that the full reveal lands February 10. After months of speculation, patent sleuthing, and corporate breadcrumbs, we now have something resembling a shape. And that shape is unmistakably large.

Everything we’re seeing points to a three-row electric SUV, a long-promised piece of Toyota’s EV puzzle that now appears to be ready for primetime. The interior shots give the game away: a second row with captain’s chairs suggests either a six- or seven-seat layout, and the sheer amount of glass—thanks to a panoramic sunroof—makes this thing feel more family road-trip than futuristic pod.

Toyota’s designers haven’t been asleep at the wheel, either. A full digital gauge cluster sits ahead of the driver, while a big tablet-style infotainment screen dominates the center stack. USB ports tucked into the bases of the C-pillars hint at a vehicle that expects rear-seat passengers to be as plugged in as the powertrain. In other words, this is a modern, tech-forward hauler designed for people who actually use the third row.

But the real story is what this SUV is, not just what it looks like.

Back in 2021, Toyota showed off the bZ Large SUV concept—then called the bZ5X—a three-row EV that was supposed to be part of a massive 15-vehicle electric blitz. Since then, Toyota has quietly stepped back from the awkward “bZ” branding while reshuffling its EV strategy, but one thing has remained consistent: a big, U.S.-built, three-row electric SUV was always coming.

And this sure looks like it.

Patent images we uncovered earlier, especially of the concept’s rear end, line up eerily well with what Toyota just teased. The proportions, the body creases, and that wide rear light bar all match. Even the window shape—with its distinctive triangular base at the front—lines up with the filings. If this isn’t the production version of the bZ Large SUV, then Toyota has pulled off one of the most convincing misdirects in recent memory.

What Toyota hasn’t told us yet is the name—and that’s where things get spicy.

While industry insiders have been calling this thing the bZ5X for years, Toyota’s growing discomfort with the “bZ” label suggests something more familiar might be in the works. Enter Highlander.

Toyota already builds a wildly successful three-row crossover in the Grand Highlander, which absolutely crushed its shorter sibling last year. The standard Highlander’s sales fell more than 37 percent to just over 56,000 units, while the Grand Highlander surged nearly 91 percent to almost 137,000. That kind of split practically begs for a rethink—and electrifying the regular Highlander would be one way to do it.

An electric Highlander—or even something like a “bZ Highlander”—would make a lot of sense. Ford proved with the Mustang Mach-E that familiar nameplates can smooth the transition to electric, even when the vehicle underneath is something entirely new. Customers trust the Highlander name, and Toyota would be wise to lean on that goodwill as it tries to get conservative buyers comfortable with plugging in.

We already know this SUV will be built in Kentucky with batteries sourced from Toyota’s North Carolina facility, and production is expected to begin in the first half of 2026. The reveal next week in California should finally lock in the name, the specs, and just how serious Toyota is about re-entering the EV race it once helped invent—and then strangely abandoned.

So call it the bZ5X, the Grand Crown, or the Electric Highlander. What matters is that Toyota’s long-teased three-row EV is real, it’s coming, and it’s about to become one of the most important vehicles the company has launched in a decade.

And in a market where big electric family haulers are still thin on the ground, Toyota just showed up to the fight with something that actually looks ready to sell.

Source: Toyota

News

Dacia Turns Its SUVs into a Budget Observatory on Wheels

Leave it to Dacia to look at the booming overlanding craze, shrug at the six-figure expedition rigs clogging Instagram, and say: What if camping was just… simple? The Romanian brand’s latest idea, charmingly dubbed the “Million Star Hotel,” is less about rooftop tents and titanium cookware and more about sleeping inside your car while the universe puts on a show overhead.

The concept centers on Dacia’s biggest SUV yet, the Bigster, a 4.57-meter-long slab of practical ambition that finally offers enough interior real estate to make car camping feel intentional rather than desperate. The star of the show—literally and figuratively—is the factory-designed Sleep Pack, an optional setup that turns the Bigster’s cargo area into a two-person bedroom with a view of the cosmos.

The Sleep Pack isn’t exclusive to the Bigster; it also fits the Duster and Jogger, reinforcing Dacia’s talent for stretching one clever idea across an entire lineup. At its core is a 190-centimeter double mattress that unfolds across the boot floor and folded rear seats. When morning comes—or when you need your SUV back—the mattress detaches and tucks neatly into a bespoke wooden storage box.

Headroom is, predictably, snug. But the Bigster’s panoramic sunroof makes that a feature rather than a flaw. Instead of staring at headliner fabric, you fall asleep watching the stars wheel overhead, separated from deep space by a thin sheet of glass. The wooden base doubles as a small table, with storage compartments underneath for the essentials: flashlights, snacks, and whatever else you forgot to pack because you assumed “it’s just one night.”

Dacia’s big reveal happens February 25 and 26 in Scotland’s Galloway Forest Park, one of the UK’s officially designated dark-sky zones. Far from city glow and light pollution, guests will camp overnight beneath a rare celestial alignment. If the weather cooperates—and that’s always the fine print in Scotland—Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, and Mercury will all be visible to the naked eye.

This isn’t just a lie-down-and-stargaze affair. Dacia is leaning into the outdoorsy fantasy with open-fire cooking, kayaking, and fishing. And while the Sleep Pack doesn’t magically add plumbing, the brand will provide on-site facilities, including a large communal tent with basic amenities. Think glamping-adjacent, minus the pretense.

Bookings for the “Million Star Hotel” are open until January 28 through a dedicated website, with spots allocated by lottery. Requirements are refreshingly straightforward: UK residency, a valid driver’s license, and ideally someone you don’t mind sharing a mattress with. Each vehicle sleeps two adults, so bringing a guest is encouraged.

For those who don’t win the stargazing sweepstakes—or who just want to turn their own Dacia into a weekend escape pod—the Sleep Pack is available to buy. The mattress and wooden box retail for £1,307. Add blackout curtains for £175 and a tent for £350, and the full InNature Camping Kit totals £1,830.

In classic Dacia fashion, it’s not luxurious, it’s not flashy, and it doesn’t pretend to be anything it isn’t. But in a world where “adventure” often comes with a luxury price tag, the idea of parking an affordable SUV in the middle of nowhere and watching the planets drift by feels refreshingly honest. Sometimes, the best hotel really does have a million stars—and no minibar.

Source: Dacia