2013 Rolls-royce Ghost on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Work begins on new Rolls-Royce Phantom, PHEV likely

After reporting that a new Rolls-Royce Phantom would arrive sometime around 2017 in the same timeframe as a Rolls-Royce SUV, Autocar has a few more details on the next coming of the massive English sedan. Both its skin and its bones are being worked out right now, brand design head Giles Taylor telling the magazine that his team is "treading an evolutionary path" with the model, suggesting it will have "more charisma and more edge" as part of a future design language that will have "a charismatic expressiveness."
True, that gives us absolutely no indication of what the car will look like, but it seems fair to assume it will feature more curves and detailing than the present car. The long C-pillar will remain, though, the privacy it affords being "part of the Phantom recipe."
What's underneath could be more detailed as well, the report saying BMW is mulling an i3 kind of build, with an aluminum chassis supporting a carbon fiber bodyshell. Assuming production considerations and costs could be kept in line, the benefits would be a lighter car that offers more latitude with the design, easier implementation of new bodystyles and the segment's technology crown. A lighter Phantom would bring further rewards for its PHEV variant, which Autocar says is "a certainty."

Bugatti and Rolls-Royce set annual sales records in 2022

Most of the carmakers positioned on the industry's upper echelons ended 2021 on a high note, and many posted even better sales figures in 2022. Bugatti and Rolls-Royce independently announced that they set new sales records in 2022 and noted that the future looks bright. Bugatti is one of the smallest car companies so its record might not initially sound impressive: it delivered 80 cars in 2022, which is exactly the number it predicted at the beginning of that year. If that seems like a rounding error, keep in mind that every car it offers is a hand-built, limited-edition model with a price tag pegged well into the six digits. Viewed in that light, making and delivering 80 cars is an impressive feat. That number includes the 400th example of the sold-out Chiron, the last nine units of the Chiron Super Sport 300+, and the 10 planned examples of the Centodieci. Bugatti points out that 80 cars is a record for the Molsheim factory, which was inaugurated in France in 2005. Bugatti has its work cut out for the coming years. It needs to build the final units of the Chiron, the 99 examples of the Mistral (pictured), and the 40 units of the track-only Bolide. All of these cars are sold-out so the firm currently doesn't have a car to sell but that's set to change soon: Bugatti-Rimac CEO Mate Rimac pledged to release more details about Bugatti's future in the second half of 2023, and he added that "Bugatti will honor its rich motorsport heritage and its connection with the 24 Hours of Le Mans, which celebrates its centenary year." Across the English Channel, Rolls-Royce delivered 6,021 cars in 2022, an increase of 8% compared to 2021 and its first annual result above the 6,000-unit mark. The company notes that these cars went to customers in about 50 different countries. Demand for personalized cars was at an all-time high in 2022 and the average selling price of a Rolls-Royce now stands at approximately ˆ500,000 (around $536,000). Rolls-Royce's biggest market remains the United States, where sales increased in 2022, followed by China, where sales posted a single-digit drop due to COVID-related lockdowns and other headwinds blowing across the nation. Sales in Europe increased in 2022 as well in spite of the war in Ukraine; Germany and the United Kingdom are among the nations that posted record sales in 2022. Interestingly, one of Rolls-Royce's largest Asian markets is South Korea, and more Bespoke orders came from the Middle East than from any other region.

Ward's releases 10 Best Interiors list for 2014

While we're still a ways off from the automotive awards season proper, where things like North American Car and Truck of the Year, Motor Trend's Car of the Year and Car and Driver's Ten Best are named, that doesn't mean there aren't trophies being handed out to deserving automakers. Ward's 10 Best Interiors being one of them.
As the name might imply, the magazine focuses on the very best interior treatments in the US market. Whereas some awards purposely exclude extreme, high-dollar offerings, Ward's considers them - the only requirement is that a vehicle has a "new or significantly redesigned interior."
Ward's offered up the list of winners in simple, alphabetical order, and it only seems fair to do the same: