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BMW sold 2.49 million BMW, Mini and Rolls-Royce vehicles in 2018

FRANKFURT — German carmaker BMW on Tuesday said it achieved record sales of 2.49 million BMW, Mini and Rolls-Royce vehicles last year. "BMW Group achieved record sales in 2018. 2.49 million vehicles mean the BMW Group is the world's leading premium automotive company for the 15th year running," Chief Executive Harald Krueger said. In 2017, BMW Group sold 2.46 million vehicles. Daimler has not yet released annual sales figures for Mercedes-Benz passenger cars, so it remains unclear whether BMW brand overtook Mercedes-Benz in terms of sales in 2018. Sales of BMW, Mini and Rolls-Royce cars were higher than Mercedes-Benz in 2017.

The latest Rolls-Royce concept is a hybrid dump truck

Is a standard Rolls-Royce not big and imposing enough for you? Perhaps the company's latest concept can get you to pass the Grey Poupon. Behold, the Rolls-Royce MTU hybrid haul truck. The Cullinan might come with 22-inch rims, but when equipped with its R63 Michelin XDRs, each wheel and tire combo of the ultimate Roller will stand over 13 feet tall. With a driver's seat a full story off the ground, it's so lofty you won't even see the plebes that you crush in their feeble Coachbuild Dawns as indifferently as Loxodonta africana steamrolls a line of ants. Serve as your own life-size Spirit of Ecstasy as you look down at the puny Parthenon radiators of run-of-the-mill Phantoms from atop your soaring grille, located a full flight of stairs above the lowly earth. All jokes aside, the Rolls-Royce truck mainly serves to promote its new MTU V12 2000-series industrial 12-cylinder engines. Rolls-Royce doesn't even produce the haul trucks; typically, they provide the engines for installation into rigid dumpers built by Liebherr, Hitachi, or Selex. The new hybrid mill produces 1,560 horsepower, meant to replace the V16 4000-series 16-cylinder engines making 2,500 horsepower. However, Rolls-Royce says performance will be the same while dropping carbon dioxide emissions by 30 percent in new installations, or 22 percent with retrofits. Like a Prius, the engine uses a battery pack to store regenerative energy captured as the trucks descend into quarries, then expends that juice to climb back up. It also requires no additional space for an exhaust gas treatment system or diesel urea additives, which are apparently concerns in a mining truck. In addition, Rolls-Royce is in the process of engineering its industrial engines to run on sustainable fuels such as hydrogen brewed from renewable energy (not the way we do it in the U.S.). The company hopes to have hydrogen fuel engines ready by 2023 in stationary applications. It's all part of the company's goals for a — say it with us — carbon-neutral future. The concept truck was conceived for MINExpo 2021, a mining convention taking place September 26-29 in Las Vegas. Hopefully they'll put it into production and offer a constellation headliner in the cab.

Michael Fux sure likes fuchsia — now there's a 'Fuxia' Rolls-Royce

Over the weekend, we told you about a McLaren 720S done up in a bespoke color at the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance, an eye-popping fuchsia that McLaren dubbed "Fux Fuchsia." And now it's showing up on a Rolls-Royce as well, unveiled at The Qual in a color RR calls simply "Fuxia." There's a lot more surface area on a Rolls than on a McLaren, so on a day when we're supposed to save our retinas by not looking directly at the solar eclipse, you might consider wearing your eclipse goggles to view the gallery above. The car is, well, vivid. Fux is a Cuban immigrant who made his millions in mattresses as the founder of Sleep Innovations. A mattress is clearly not where he stores those millions, since he has amassed a vast car collection. This "Dawn in Fuxia" car is his 11th Rolls, each highly personalized. "Michael is a very special patron of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars," said RR CEO Torsten Muller-Otvos in revealing the car. "Rolls-Royce designers love working with him because he constantly challenges them to take their work to an even higher level, delivering a true work of art." The color is said to be based on the petals of a fuchsia flower Fux found last year at Pebble Beach. He presented them to Rolls Royce to replicate. As with the McLaren, Rolls is using Fux's car to highlight the fact that it can build you a bespoke car in any color you want — Rolls says it offers a palette of 44,000 choices. Some of Fux's previous Rolls-Royces have come in these custom colors (each officially named using his name): Fux Blue was his Pebble reveal last year. Before it was Fux Intense Jade Pearl; a two-tone of Aequus Green Jade Pearl, Cornish White Jade Pearl; Deep Purple; Candy Red; and Yellow. Related Video: