Electrification was the overriding theme at this year’s Frankfurt motor show, and virtually every brand represented (there were far fewer this year) headlined their presentation with one or more battery-powered offerings.
There has been a lot of speculation, and negativity, on what the upcoming 2020 Land Rover Defender will look like, especially as there is no way the Defender can continue its classic looks in a modern safety-conscious world. With numerous spy shots hinting at something that looks like a previous-generation Land Rover LR4, the reincarnation of the legendary off-roader is largely expected to become the new boxy option to the blobby new Discovery. And the wait to see what the new Defender looks like is almost over, as a leaked image of the Defender surfaces, presumably from the instrument cluster of a pre-production prototype.
The Range Rover SV Coupe, which was to be a limited-edition expensive version of the regular Range Rover, has been canceled before a single example has been built.
As the automotive market evolves around electric vehicles and other green fuels, we have witnessed the growth of many new companies, with one, in particular, hogging all the attention. And now, there’s a new one called Rivian and they’re here with quite a bang. They arrived at the 2018 Los Angeles Motor Show in style with their all-electric R1T pickup truck and the R1S SUV. The trait that they both share? Supercar performance.
Automobili Pininfarina has announced a new PF0 electric hypercar of their own, and they’re already saying they are targeting the Middle East and the UAE in particular.
The 2019 BMW Z4 Roadster has been making camouflaged appearances all over the world for a while now. To build some interest in the otherwise unloved nameplate, BMW now has officially dropped a teaser of their BMW Z4 prototype in its range-topping M40i avatar.
Ever since the Maybach brand was phased out in 2013, Bentley and Rolls-Royce have had no worthy adversary from the house of Benz. Though the recently-revived Mercedes-Maybach brand came up with ultra-posh versions of the normal Mercedes-Benz models, they are just not as prestigious as the Rolls-Royce luxury barges. Now though, it seems that Maybach is attempting to take on the SUV models from the British stalwarts. A early look is offered by the Vision Mercedes-Maybach Ultimate Luxury concept, and it is astonishingly gaudy.
Kia’s plans to introduce an SUV that replaces the aging Mohave were revealed a couple of years ago when they uncovered the Telluride concept in 2016. Now the news from the Korean manufacturer hints at a production version called the Kia Telluride that will soon hit the production line.
The Ford Focus is undergoing a complete redesign for 2019, and is going to be be unveiled by April this year. However, we’re getting an early look at it, courtesy of this spy shot from a promotional photoshoot.
Acura is Honda’s luxury brand, found in only a handful of markets. The RDX crossover is Acura’s key player in the U.S. market. Accounting for a third of the total Acura sales, the RDX obviously is a very important product. Now, as a new generation model of the RDX is due to arrive this summer, Acura has lifted the covers off the 2019 RDX prototype.