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Renault has built a 1,500-unit limited edition of the Rafale called hypnotic, priced at €63,550 in France against €60,250 for the Atelier Alpine it is based on. The four options it makes standard cost €3,600 on that car, so the exclusive paint, wheels and numbered plate effectively cost nothing. Orders open on 1 October in 14 countries.

Mercedes will close one German assembly plant and one German powertrain plant if it cannot agree cost cuts with its workforce, production board member Michael Schiebe told staff in Sindelfingen. The demand is a 40-hour week at 35 hours' pay. Kecskemét in Hungary has just doubled to 400,000 cars, where an hour of labour costs €15.60 against €49.50 in Germany.

The 2026 Azerbaijan Grand Prix will be run on Saturday 26 September rather than the usual Sunday. Formula 1 agreed to move the Baku weekend forward 24 hours at the request of local organisers, so the race does not clash with Azerbaijan's Remembrance Day on 27 September, which honours the roughly 2,900 soldiers killed in the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War.

Nissan brings its e-Power series hybrid to the United States in the 2027 Rogue Hybrid: two motors, 225 hp, all-wheel drive, from $35,490 plus delivery. Nissan quotes 40/36/38 mpg, yet the petrol Rogue already returns 36 mpg on the highway, and a RAV4 Hybrid does 42 for $2,315 less. Europe's next X-Trail gets the same system in 2027.

McLaren has replaced its wordmark with lettering adapted from the sign above Les and Ruth McLaren's Remuera service station, where their son Bruce restored his first Austin 7. The McL 6GT is the first car to wear it. The Speedmark is separated and demoted, Papaya moves towards the racing team, and McLaren Automotive adopts a dark Midnight palette, days after L'IMAD's £500 million plan.

Rolls-Royce has started the global test programme for Project Nightingale, the 100-car electric roadster it revealed in April. Prototypes will cover 350 collective weeks from southern France to the Arctic Circle and the Arabian Peninsula, run to 250 km/h and open the sideways Piano Boot 15,000 times. Deliveries start in 2028, the year the Spectre was once meant to be 70 percent of the brand's sales.

Fernando Alonso is reportedly weighing retirement from Formula 1 at the end of 2026 to join the World Endurance Championship in 2027, where he would race Aston Martin's Valkyrie hypercar. It would return the 45-year-old to a series he already conquered with Toyota, winning the title and the 24 Hours of Le Mans twice, and reunite him with a manufacturer whose F1 team is fighting near the bottom of the grid.

Ceer has revealed the Exobot sedan and SUV, the first cars from Saudi Arabia's PIF and Foxconn joint venture. Top versions claim more than 1,100 hp and 0-100 km/h in 2.1 seconds, with a Rimac rear drive, Hyundai Transys front motors and a BMW technology licence. Production starts in January 2027 and deliveries in March, two years after the date set at the brand's launch.

Delage Automobiles has a new shareholder in Antoine Arnault, who invests through Marbeuf Capital alongside the Pinault family and Xavier Niel. The €2 million D12 hypercar has reached three customers since December 2025, with about six firm orders against a run of 30. The Nürburgring record attempt planned for 2020, then 2023, then spring 2025, still has no date.