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Mercedes A Class production outsourced

Mercedes is outsourcing some new A Class production as orders continue to flood in for Mercedes’ new compact car. Last week we had the news that Mercedes will be building new A Class compact SUV – the Mercedes GLA – at the Mercedes plant in Rastatt as production of the A Class kicked off. But despite the new A Class being built at both Rastatt and the Mercedes plant in Kecskemet, Hungary, Mercedes don’t have enough capacity for the volume of order flooding in for the new A Class – over 40,000 since it went on sale just over a month ago.

Bentley plans to add four-seat sports car, crossover to lineup

Bentley Motors is looking to add a four-seat sports car and a crossover vehicle to its lineup, using borrowed platforms from Volkswagen Group siblings Porsche and Audi, its top executive said. In an interview during the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance, Bentley CEO Wolfgang Duerheimer said the crossover would borrow from the Audi Q7 and Porsche Cayenne platforms. While the crossover may carry a V12 engine like the rest of the Bentley lineup, Duerheimer said, "not everyone needs to have a V12." Duerheimer, who oversaw Porsche's push into SUVs as the company's development chief, said he "knows what is possible" in bringing a luxury brand into new segments.

Jaguar Land Rover Special Operations division launches

Cars like the Jaguar F-Type Project 7 (pictured) will come from JLR’s Special Operations If the creation of the Jaguar Land Rover Special Operations division to create bespoke, heritage, ultra luxury and high performance Jaguar, Land Rover and Range Rover cars doesn’t shout how positive JLR are about the future, nothing will. Jaguar call it “meeting the increasing expectations of today’s most discerning and enthusiastic car customers“, but what they really mean is that JLR have now got so much back on their game with cars like the new Jaguar F-Type, new Range Rover and new Range Rover Sport that they now have buyers with deep enough pockets to pay for just about anything, so that’s what JLR are going to do with the Special Operations division; give them anything they want – at a price That will mean car like the Jaguar Project 7 F-Type we saw at Goodwood last year being possible, ultra-luxury versions of the Range Rover and even the creation of heritage cars like the new Lightweight E-Types could become a regular occurrence. With a team of engineers and and designers led by Paul Newsome, recently recruited from Williams Advance Engineering, the plan is to create halo vehicles for both the Jaguar and Land Rover brands, and a team of 150 at a new Technical Centre near Gaydon will have a customer commissioning suite for bespoke and premium personalisation.