Around the traps: Tesla's big wiper energy, Lancia's electric Stratos & more!

Sep 02, 2023

We can't always give them a story of their own, but some of them can at least get a moment here in my new weekly 'megathread', which I'll update sporadically and bump to the top of our news column.

The newest additions will be posted to the top of this page, pushing earlier entries down.

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The corner-mounted arm reaches across the breath of the windscreen, and as you can see in the video and screengrab here, it looks as though it's longer than the average broom handle.

Incredibly, a suitable design for the wiper – missing from the concept shown all those years ago – was believed to be one of the last remaining hurdles before deliveries could begin. We'll see...

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Italian brand Lancia, part of the Stellantis empire, has revealed its first new electric concept: the Pu+Ra HPE.

The brand says: "With Lancia Pu+Ra HPE, Lancia journey towards the future begins, drawing inspiration from the past. From the iconic round headlights, recalling the legendary Stratos to the horizontal lines that echo the famous Venetian sunshade structure of the Lancia Beta HPE of the 1970s. A perfect symbiosis between past and present, between purity and radicalism, between innovation and emotion."

The brand claims a driving range of 700km off one charge, with an astonishing efficiency claim of just 10kWh/100km. More, 70 per cent of its "aesthetic surface" in the cabin is made of sustainable materials.

Read about it at Lancia.com.

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Available in Europe since 2014, the second-generation Mini three-door – codenamed R54 – has hit the one-million milestone. That's an impressive number by any measure, but as a point of comparison, Tesla is believed to have sold one million Model 3s between 2017 and June 2021.

Still, one million sales of a compact three-door hatch in this era of increasingly SUV-obsessed buyers is no small accomplishment. You can't take that away from Mini.

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It looks like the expansive new Toyota Crown range will get a traditional sedan after all, according to Japan's BestCarWeb. You can read the story here (use Google Translate), and see the initial 2022 concept below.

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Of course, China's trademark agency published images of the new car way back in November 2022, so there's not too much left to know at this point.

"Unlike anything we’ve designed before…"

Unlike anything we’ve designed before… pic.twitter.com/uU8JxB6mpS

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Mike Stevens has been writing, ranting and raving about cars since the early 2000s, and professionally since 2007 – after throwing in the towel on a decade of graphic design. Instagram: @yomikestevens