Tag Archives: vehicles

News

Porsche Exits Bugatti Rimac

In the rarefied air where nine-figure hypercars are less transportation and more philosophy, tectonic shifts don’t happen with tire smoke or Nürburgring lap times. They happen in boardrooms. And this week, one of the biggest just did.

Porsche AG is stepping away from the very empire it helped build, agreeing to sell its stakes in both Bugatti Rimac and Rimac Group to a consortium led by HOF Capital. It’s the kind of move that sounds clinical on paper—equity stakes, regulatory approvals, confidential terms—but underneath it hums with the same intensity as a quad-turbocharged W-16.

To understand the magnitude, rewind to 2021. That’s when Porsche and Rimac joined forces to create Bugatti Rimac, a joint venture designed to shepherd one of the most storied names in automotive history into an electrified future. Porsche held 45 percent, Rimac the controlling 55, while also enjoying a 20.6-percent slice of Rimac Group itself. It was a carefully calibrated alliance: Stuttgart’s legacy and engineering rigor paired with the raw, electrified audacity of Mate Rimac.

Now, Porsche is cashing out entirely.

The buyers? Not a legacy automaker, but a financial syndicate—HOF Capital at the helm, backed by BlueFive Capital and a slate of institutional investors spanning the U.S. and Europe. Once the ink dries and regulators give their blessing—expected before the end of 2026—Rimac Group will tighten its grip on Bugatti Rimac, while HOF Capital steps in as a major shareholder alongside Rimac himself.

If that sounds like a changing of the guard, that’s because it is.

Porsche CEO Michael Leiters frames the decision as focus: a return to core business, a strategic narrowing of scope in an industry increasingly defined by costly transitions. It’s a pragmatic exit, but also a telling one. Porsche didn’t just invest in Rimac—it legitimized it, helping transform a Croatian startup into a bona fide Tier-1 technology player.

And yet, the student is now very much the master.

For Mate Rimac, this is less an ending than an acceleration. With fewer cooks in the kitchen and fresh capital at his back, the path clears for a more singular vision—one that doesn’t have to reconcile the competing priorities of a legacy OEM shareholder. His statement reads like a founder finally handed the keys to his own creation, ready to push harder and move faster.

The wildcard, of course, is the new money. Investment firms aren’t known for sentimental attachment, but both HOF Capital and BlueFive Capital are striking a tone that leans more Pebble Beach than private equity. They speak of heritage, craftsmanship, and legacy—language that suggests Bugatti’s future won’t be reduced to quarterly returns and spreadsheet efficiencies.

Still, the balancing act will be delicate. Bugatti isn’t just another brand; it’s an altar to excess, a rolling expression of engineering maximalism. Keeping that spirit alive while scaling Rimac’s technology ambitions is the kind of challenge that doesn’t come with a blueprint.

But if there’s anyone suited to the task, it’s the guy who once turned an electrified BMW E30 into a global calling card.

The broader takeaway? The hypercar world is evolving—not just in what powers the cars, but in who powers the companies behind them. As Porsche retreats to its core and financial players move in, the lines between passion project and portfolio asset blur a little more.

And somewhere in Croatia, the future of Bugatti is being rewritten—not with a signature exhaust note, but with the quiet, relentless whir of electric ambition.

Source: Bugatti

News

Mercedes Reinvents Luxury at Auto China 2026

At Auto China 2026, Mercedes-Benz didn’t just roll out new metal—it rolled out a thesis. And like any proper Stuttgart manifesto, it’s equal parts engineering bravado, cultural calibration, and a not-so-subtle reminder of who still writes the luxury rulebook.

China, long the brand’s largest market, is no longer just a destination for three-pointed stars—it’s becoming the forge where they’re shaped.

The Long-Wheelbase Playbook, Electrified

Front and center sits the all-new electric GLC L, a vehicle that reads like a case study in regional obsession. Longer, roomier, and—crucially—available as both a five- and six-seater, it’s engineered with laser focus on Chinese buyers who equate wheelbase with status and rear-seat comfort with success.

But don’t mistake this for a stretched afterthought. The GLC L brings serious hardware: AIRMATIC air suspension cribbed from the S-Class, rear-axle steering, and a chassis tuned specifically for local roads. Even the software leans eastward, with China-specific navigation integration and a virtual assistant—“LittleBenz”—that speaks not just Mandarin, but regional dialects. It’s less a car adapting to a market and more a car born inside it.

S-Class: The Flagship Learns New Tricks

If the GLC L is the present, the new S-Class is the near future—particularly if you spend your time in the back seat. Built on the brand’s in-house MB.OS architecture, it introduces a Vision Language Model co-developed with Tsinghua University. Translation: your car now reads your face, anticipates your needs, and adjusts the cabin before you even think to ask.

It’s a shift in philosophy. The S-Class has always been about predicting the future of driving; now it’s predicting the passenger.

Maybach: Still the Last Word

Then there’s the Mercedes-Maybach S-Class, which continues its quiet campaign as the world’s most opulent rolling lounge. V12 power remains on the menu, because of course it does, but the bigger story is integration—MB.OS, advanced suspension systems, and rear-seat tech that borders on decadent. In China, where the back seat is king, Maybach isn’t just relevant; it’s essential.

CLA 260 L: Efficiency Goes Long

At the other end of the spectrum, the all-electric CLA 260 L proves efficiency doesn’t have to come in a penalty box. Borrowing tech from the VISION EQXX concept, it boasts a remarkable consumption figure of 11 kWh/100 km—numbers that would make even the most hardened EV skeptic raise an eyebrow. Add a longer wheelbase and a full suite of driver assistance systems, and it becomes clear: entry-level Mercedes is no longer an afterthought.

Bigger Than a Product Blitz

All of this is part of a broader offensive. More than 40 new models are slated to arrive by 2027, marking the most aggressive rollout in the company’s history. But the real story isn’t quantity—it’s geography.

Mercedes-Benz is embedding itself deeper into China’s tech ecosystem, leveraging local partnerships and AI development to shape not just China-bound cars, but global ones. The collaboration with Momenta on driver assistance systems is a prime example: navigation and autonomy blending into something that feels less like a feature and more like a co-pilot.

Even production tells the story. Beijing Benz Automotive Co. (BBAC) has already built six million vehicles, and its factories are evolving into high-tech hubs, complete with carbon-neutral certifications and even humanoid robots on the line.

Tomorrow, Engineered Today

Hovering over it all is the “Tomorrow XX” program, a sweeping initiative aimed at redefining sustainability—from materials to manufacturing to end-of-life recycling. It’s less flashy than a new flagship, but arguably more important. Because in the next era of luxury, how a car is made may matter as much as how it drives.

The Takeaway

What Mercedes-Benz showed in Beijing isn’t just a lineup—it’s a strategy. Build cars in China, for China, and increasingly, with China. Then export that innovation back to the world.

It’s a reversal of the traditional flow of automotive influence, and one that suggests the next great Mercedes might not be born in Stuttgart at all—but in the traffic-choked, tech-fueled streets of Beijing.

And if that sounds like a radical shift, it is. But then again, Mercedes has always been at its best when rewriting its own rules.

Source: Mercedes-Benz

NEW CARS

Lamborghini’s 800-HP Urus Tettonero Goes Bespoke

At a certain point, excess becomes the point. And at Milano Design Week 2026, Automobili Lamborghini didn’t just lean into that philosophy—it wrapped it in gloss-black paint, gave it 800 horsepower, and limited it to 630 examples. Meet the Urus SE1 “Tettonero” Capsule, a machine that treats personalization less like a feature and more like a competitive sport.

If the standard Urus already walks a fine line between supercar theater and SUV practicality, the Tettonero Capsule erases that line entirely. Its defining visual cue is right there in the name: a Nero Shiny upper body treatment that cloaks the roof, pillars, and aero details in a piano-black finish. It’s paired with six body colors—some familiar, some debuting on the Urus—like the deep, almost bruised purple of Viola Pasifae and the acidic flash of Verde Mercurius. Then Lamborghini hands you another palette of livery accents and basically says, “Go wild.” The result? More than 70 possible exterior configurations before you even start arguing about wheel sizes or brake caliper colors.

This is where Lamborghini’s Ad Personam program goes from boutique option list to full-blown identity exercise. According to the company, every Tettonero Capsule is meant to reflect its owner as much as the brand itself. That sounds like marketing copy—and it is—but it’s also hard to argue when you’re staring at a spec sheet that reads like a Pantone catalog. Even the optional “63” logo on the doors nods to the company’s founding year, because subtlety was never invited to this party.

Inside, things don’t calm down so much as they become more deliberate. Nero Ade dominates the cabin, acting as a canvas for contrast stitching and trim in colors like Viola Acutus or Verde Viper. Carbon fiber appears everywhere it reasonably—and sometimes unreasonably—can: across the dash, the center tunnel, the door panels. There’s even a commemorative plaque marking a decade of the Ad Personam Studio, because if you’re buying one of these, you probably appreciate a bit of meta storytelling with your microfibers and Dinamica leather.

Of course, the real story isn’t just the color wheel gone rogue—it’s what sits beneath it. The Tettonero Capsule rides on Lamborghini’s latest hybridized Urus platform, pairing a twin-turbo 4.0-liter V8 with an electric motor and a 25.9-kWh battery. Total output lands at a clean, headline-friendly 800 CV and 950 Nm of torque, numbers that push this two-and-a-half-ton SUV into territory usually reserved for low-slung exotics. Zero to 100 km/h happens in 3.4 seconds, and if you keep your foot in it, you’ll see 312 km/h before physics—or common sense—intervenes.

But the hybrid system isn’t just there for bragging rights or regulatory compliance. The electric motor can drive the car on its own for over 60 kilometers, turning the Urus into a silent, all-wheel-drive cruiser when needed. More interestingly, it works in concert with a centrally mounted torque splitter and an electronically controlled rear differential to deliver something Lamborghini boldly describes as “oversteer on demand.” In other words, this SUV doesn’t just grip—it rotates, pivots, and plays along like a much smaller, much angrier machine.

All of it rides on specially developed Pirelli P Zero tires with Elect technology, designed to handle the unique demands of a hybrid performance setup. Because when you’re juggling instant electric torque and twin-turbo thrust, ordinary rubber simply won’t do.

The backdrop for all this excess? The cavernous, industrial-art setting of Pirelli HangarBicocca in Milan, where Lamborghini chose to photograph the Tettonero Capsule. It’s an appropriate venue—part gallery, part repurposed factory—mirroring the car itself: a fusion of artistry, engineering, and unapologetic spectacle.

The Urus SE1 “Tettonero” Capsule doesn’t try to justify its existence in rational terms. It doesn’t need to. Instead, it doubles down on what the modern super-SUV has become: a rolling contradiction that’s equal parts status symbol, performance weapon, and design statement. In typical Lamborghini fashion, it asks a simple question—how much is too much?—and answers it by adding another layer of gloss black.

Source: Lamborghini