If You Really Want a Space Bentley Bentayga It'll Cost You $71 Million

The first pure electric Jeep is coming in the first half of 2023, Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares revealed in Amsterdam where he delivered an overview of the direction of the automaker through 2030.No, the first electric Jeep is not a Jeep Wrangler. It is instead a small lifestyle Jeep, shorthand for a crossover. It is an all-new vehicle, a new addition to the lineup, and does not yet have a name. The SUV is small, somewhat rounded, kinda cute, almost Renegade-like—and obviously tailored to the urban customer. Being small, it will hold broader global appeal.The Jeep EV has been developed on the STLA Small platform, one of four dedicated electrified architectures that will underpin all nameplates for the 14 brands under the Stellantis umbrella. Stellantis is the automaker created more than a year ago with the merger of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and PSA Group, lumping Jeep, Chrysler, Ram, Dodge, Fiat, Alfa Romeo, and Maserati together with the French auto conglomerate's offerings.Stellantis is moving towards a future where 100 percent of all vehicles sold in Europe and 50 percent of the lineup in North America will be electric vehicles by 2030.Jeep has embraced electrification faster than most Stellantis brands, at least according to Tavares, who said as much to reporters gathered in Amsterdam to learn more of the Dare Forward 2030 long-term strategic plan that has more than 100 new vehicle launches planned—75 of them electric—including an electric Ram 1500 full-size electric pickup truck in 2024.Jeep's 4xe plug-in hybrid technology is gaining recognition and sales, making it the second of the 14 Stellantis brands in terms of electrification, Tavares said.The strategic vision is to invest in all the American brands and the U.S. will have 25 EVs on sale by 2030.

This is it. The end of an era. The 2024 Bugatti Mistral will be the last car the storied hypercar maker will ever build with the mighty quad-turbo, 8.0-liter, W-16 engine. Just 99 will be built, and despite a $5.1-million price tag, all are sold.The Mistral is powered by the same 1600-hp version of the W-16 that propels the record-breaking Chiron Super Sport 300+, making it the most potent open-top internal combustion engine production car ever built. Bugatti's previous roadster, the 1,200-hp Veyron Grand Sport Vitesse, set an open-top production car speed record of 254.04 mph in 2013. Bugatti design director Achim Anscheidt says the company is planning to top 260 mph in the Mistral.It's More Than What's UnderneathThe Mistral is basically a Chiron Super Sport under the skin. But it's more than just a Chiron Super Sport with the roof removed. "You can't just cut open a Chiron," says Anscheidt, not the least, he points out, because that would compromise the sweeping arc that starts at the A-pillar and loops around the side of the car. "It would look terrible."The Mistral's tauter surfaces and crisper lines are more than just a solution to an existing design challenge. They hint at the styling direction for the next-generation plug-in hybrid Bugatti currently under development in a new design and engineering hub in Berlin, Germany, and in Zagreb, Croatia, site of the global headquarters of the Bugatti Rimac Group headed by Mate Rimac. There are elements of the Bugatti Divo in the Mistral's overall form, though it's nowhere near as extreme in terms of its detailing. "Divo was quite aggressive," concedes Anscheidt. "This car simplifies that quite a bit. Bugatti has a strong graphic DNA, and the stronger the graphic DNA, the calmer the rest of the car can be."The famous horseshoe grille is the widest yet seen on a modern Bugatti and is framed by large cooling vents, vertically stacked headlights, and ducts that create air curtains along either side of the car to improve aerodynamic efficiency. The dramatic rear taillight graphic is derived from that of the track-only Bugatti Bolide. "That car had such a strong identity," Anschedt said. "We wanted to transfer that to a production car."Whereas the Chiron's looping body-side signature hides engine air and oil cooler intakes, in the Mistral these have been visually separated. The side vents are for the oil coolers only, while hot air exits at the rear of the car between the diagonal elements of the rear lights.Lots of Engine, No RoofThe Mistral's mighty W-16 gulps almost 2,500 cubic feet of air per minute at full throttle through two giant scoops mounted behind the seats. The intake openings are slightly larger than those of the Chiron Super Sport, but they have been engineered so the airflow is the same. The scoops funnel to a new airbox with a new filter setup and are strong enough to take the 4,400-plus-pound weight of the car in the event of a roll over.A bridge between the two scoops hides a small glass panel designed to prevent hot air from the engine compartment from washing into the open cockpit. There is no roof, and none is planned other than a small emergency cover. Bugatti roadster owners don't drive in the rain.The Mistral's steeply raked A-pillars and side windows echo those of the one-of-a-kind, $18.9-million Bugatti La Voiture Noire. The updated A-pillars, which can also support the weight of the car in a rollover, required a major rework of the top part of the Chiron tub. Strengthening elements have also been laid into the sills and the central tunnel of the tub to compensate for the lack of a roof. As a result, the Mistral weighs about the same as a Chiron Super Sport and has very similar suspension settings."The target was for the car to drive like a Super Sport," Bugatti deputy design director Frank Heyl said. The Mistral doesn't have the extended tail and larger rear wing of the Super Sport, however; instead, additional downforce is provided by a redesigned rear diffuser, which—as in all Chirons—is blown over by two of the six exhaust outlets. The Mistral's other four exhausts exit through a single central outlet.Opulence, It Has ItThe Mistral's opulently trimmed cabin features leather on the doors and seats hand-woven by workers in the Bugatti design department. The shifter on the center console is machined from a solid block of aluminum but includes a wood insert and, set in amber, a bronze miniature of Rembrandt Bugatti's famous dancing elephant sculpture, originally used as the hood ornament on the extravagant Type 41 built between 1927 and 1933.The amber, as well as the yellow-and-black color combination, recall colors and materials favored by the Bugatti family. If they choose, instead of a dancing elephant miniature, Mistral owners can opt to have their own special keepsakes encased in the shifter.The Mistral is also the first Volkswagen Group Bugatti not to carry a name from the marque's past—Veyron and Chiron were the names of Bugatti racing drivers from the 1930s. When asked what Mistral means, Aschim Anscheidt jokes: "It means that Maserati [which built a car called the Mistral between 1963 and 1970] didn't renew the trademark."More seriously, the name, which comes from a strong wind that blows down the Rhône Valley and through southern France, is meant to reinforce Bugatti's credentials as a French brand, despite its Croatian and German owners. That's also the reason for the red-white-and-blue tricolor band near the front wheels.The Bugatti Mistral has been designed to send off the W-16 in grand style, to celebrate the unique sound and titanic thrust of one of the most extraordinary engines ever put in a production car. And if the Grand Sport Vitesse roadster, a car we said offered the Bugatti Veyron experience in shattering 7.1 surround sound, is any guide, driving the Mistral will indeed be a spectacular experience.

In what may come as a shock to many of us, Subaru has announced that the new WRX it just launched will not be getting a higher-performance WRX STI model, at least not one based on the 2022 Subaru WRX. Instead, Subaru is looking into electrification for its future performance applications, and we may not see another STI until the next generation of the WRX, which might be awhile.In its announcement, Subaru cited "the regulations and requirements for greenhouse gasses (GHG), zero emissions vehicles (ZEV), and Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFÉ)" as the impotence for holding off on a developing a new STI right away. It appears an internal-combustion-powered STI would struggle to pass increasingly stringent regulations for sale, without first going hybrid or fully-electric. "A next generation internal combustion engine WRX STI will not be produced based upon the new WRX platform," the statement declares.The move is surprising, considering the company gave no hint that it was potentially facing delays with a next-gen STI at the reveal of the new WRX sedan last year. The STI is a popular model among enthusiasts, and sales for the outgoing WRX and STI models remained consistent for almost the last decade. It's possible this announcement is intentionally vague, and Subaru may intend to co-develop separate WRX and STI models on separate platforms to still get a new model out within a few years—technically releasing a WRX STI in the same life cycle as today's WRX, albeit with a different underlying platform and powertrain altogether.It's not clear how far along, if at all, Subaru's team has been looking into "opportunities for the next generation Subaru WRX STI, including electrification," as the announcement says. Subaru also promised to incorporate "the essence of STI" into the next-gen vehicles it actually is going to produce.If we're not getting a new STI soon, if at all, then what can we expect? The automaker just announced its new E-RA, a carbon-neutral, all-electric, all-wheel drive race car intended for production and customer racing in the upcoming FIA E-GT racing league. The company could potentially use this as a starting point for its next-gen STI, if Subaru really is starting from scratch and is free to use other platforms than the WRX's.