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BMW Maps with Driver Assistance arrives in October 2026 on Operating System X cars, merging navigation, the sensed surroundings and the active assistant into one 3D view built with Mapbox. Highway Assistant 2 already drives hands-off at up to 130 km/h in nine countries. From 2027 BMW extends navigation-guided semi-automated driving to selected cities, Germany first.

Volvo has updated the XC60 with a 37.9 kWh battery, double the outgoing pack, giving the T6 plug-in hybrid 200 km of WLTP electric range and 23 g/km of CO2. The 455 hp T8 does 189 km. The XC90 gets the same hardware for 164 km. European deliveries start in January 2027, weeks after the EU's second utility-factor correction takes effect for newly approved plug-in hybrids.

Kia's K4 Hybrid pairs a 1.6 GDI with a six-speed dual-clutch for 154 hp, in hatchback and Sportswagon form, with production from 15 October 2026 and no price yet. It fills a gap the Dutch importer opened in April, when re-homologation pushed BPM on the 180 hp 1.6 T-GDI to €13,000-14,000 and Kia dropped it, leaving the K4 with one 115 hp engine.

Bugatti's first Programme Solitaire car, the W16 Brouillard, reached Michel Perridon at Chantilly Arts & Elegance on 13 September, thirteen months after its reveal at The Quail, and won Best of Show for one-offs the same day. Mate Rimac did the handover four days after buying out Porsche. The Bugatti museum Perridon has promised for Rotterdam, Dubai and now Molsheim still has no building.

Hamburg's governing SPD and Greens will vote on 16 September to push a Bundesrat initiative banning synthetic engine sound on electric cars above the 20 km/h AVAS zone. UN Regulation 138 warning tones stay. EU type approval means a German-only ban cannot reach a factory-fitted speaker, so the route runs through Brussels or Geneva, and the next Bundesrat sits on 25 September.

Kia has revealed the production PV7 at IAA Transportation in Hannover: a 5,350 mm electric van on an 800-volt version of the PV5's E-GMP.S platform, with 71.5 or 96.2 kWh batteries, 272 hp, 460 km WLTP for the Cargo Long Range and a 25-minute charge from 10 to 80 percent at 350 kW. Cargo and nine-seat Passenger versions reach Europe in the second half of 2027.

Volkswagen's Mission Efficiency prototype has set three records: a drag coefficient of 0.158, 6.48 kWh/100 km at a constant 68 km/h, and 6.89 kWh/100 km over 1,278 km from Wolfsburg to Vienna with a single charging stop. The drivetrain is the ID. Polo's 135 hp motor and battery. Volkswagen officially calls it a concept, but is studying a production version at around €50,000.

Nio's third-generation ES8 will pass 150,000 deliveries this week, twelve months after going on sale in China at 406,800 yuan, a 26.8 percent cut on the previous 100 kWh ES8. In August the ES8 and ES9 made up 82.5 percent of Nio-brand deliveries, leaving seven other models with 3,696 cars. Nio lost 528 million yuan in Q2 despite record volume, and Europe still sells the second-generation EL8 through distributors.

The 50th Suzuka 1000km went to the AO by Absolute Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R shared by Laurin Heinrich, Julien Andlauer and Belgium's Alessio Picariello, who won by 51 seconds and led a Porsche one-three. It is Porsche's first outright win at the historic Intercontinental GT Challenge round since 1994, ending a 32-year drought on AO Racing's series debut. Belgian fans had more to cheer, too, with Frédéric Vervisch second and Maxime Martin fifth.