{also piping hot}
Something completely different for Rolls-Royce: The Cullinan is the name of the largest diamond ever found and is part of the British Crown Jewel collection. Cullinan is also the name of the BMW-owned automaker’s ultra-luxury sport-utility vehicle. And other than traversing unpaved laneways or perhaps brief forays into tall grass whilst their owners are pheasant hunting, Cullinans will likely remain as only ever be pavement-bound gems. The “all-terrain car,” as design director Gilles Taylor calls it, uses a twin-turbocharged 6.75-litre V-12 that produces 563 horsepower and 627 pound-feet of torque. Along with all-wheel-drive, the Cullinan has all-wheel-steering for greater maneuverability. “Base” pricing starts at US $325,000, with deliveries beginning in 2019. Guess what new model(s) Lotus plans to introduce? According to The Sleuth’s sources, the British sports-car maker (owned by Geely of China) is in the early development stages of two luxury sport-utility vehicles. Word has it that Geely’s design boss, Peter Horbury, is drawing inspiration from Porsche, which currently has two different sizes of utility models in play, namely the Cayenne and Macan. Details on the duo are still sketchy, but it appears that both will use platforms borrowed from the Volvo XC60 and XC90 tall wagons. That makes complete sense since it so happens that Geely owns Volvo. With the world gone mad for such vehicles, The Spy Guy wonders if, or when, McLaren and Bugatti will announce similar new-product plans. Will Audi copy Mercedes-Benz with a small car for North America? Until recently, upscale automakers would never have introduced their tiny Europe-only models over here. It was believed that such a move would diminish their brands amongst the upwardly mobile. But these days it seems perfectly acceptable to play in the affordableluxury sandbox, which is why Mercedes-Benz will sell the subcompact A-Class models here in 2019. Thus, believes The Sneaky One, Audi will at some near-future date bring the latest A1 hatchback to our shores, if for no other reason than its dealer group will practically demand it. Most auto brands believe that snagging younger buyers early on will keep them with that brand as they ascend the socio-economic ladder. As well, small cars such as the A1 would make an ideal battery-powered or hybrid vehicle (think Lexus CT 200h). Infiniti goes all-in on electrics: Nissan’s premium division has big electrification plans and, according to The Sleuth’s intel, the all-new or significantly updated models will offer some degree of electrification, beginning with the 2021 model year. This will include battery-electrics as well as gasoline-electric hybrids. For performance as well as fuel economy, Infiniti will employ a combination of gasoline engines powering the front wheels plus up to two electric motors at the opposite end that can function independently or in combination with the engine (called a parallel hybrid). All will be built using a scalable platform that allows for such variations. For marketing purposes, look for the e-Power name. The recently revealed Q Inspiration concept hints at what the e-Power Infiniti models might look like.