Lotus CEO Jean-Marc Gales has provided insight into what we can expect from the replacements for the Elise and the Exige.

While rival Alfa Romeo invested in developing a light carbon fiber tub for the 4C, Lotus will stick to aluminum components in the foreseeable future. A carbon fiber tub has been ruled out because it’s markedly more expensive to design, and because it’s more difficult to modify than an aluminum architecture. Gales’ comments suggest the next Elise/Exige are being designed with a long life cycle in mind.

Forty percent of the cars that Lotus sells outside of Europe are equipped with an automatic transmission, a statistic that continues to raise eyebrows at the company’s headquarters in Hethel, England. Gales told Top Gear that the Toyota-sourced unit is too refined, so the gearbox offered on the next-gen cars will be tuned to provide a more sport-focused feel both on and off the track.

The good news is that the Elise and the Exige will be designed with the United States market in mind. The bad news is that the two cars aren’t scheduled to debut for at least another four years, meaning they won’t land on our shores until the 2020 model year at the earliest. Until then, Lotus will continue to introduce limited-edition off-shoots of both cars like the recently-unveiled Exige Sport 350 (pictured).

Finally, Lotus will launch a Roadster version of the thoroughly revised Evora 400 halfway through next year in a bid to gain a bigger slice of the U.S. market. Set to bow at a major auto show in the next few months, the Evora 400 Roadster will be equipped with two removable roof panels that will each weigh approximately six and a half pounds. The Roadster will carry a small premium over its fixed-roof counterpart, which starts at $89,900.

A Dubai-based startup named Devel has started testing what it claims is the most powerful gasoline-burning engine ever designed for a street-legal production car.

Developed by Michigan-based tuner Steve Morris Engines, the engine in question is a 12.3-liter V16 with an aluminum block and heads. It’s a 32-valve unit equipped with four large turbochargers, and it spins the rear wheels only via a four-speed automatic transmission.

Recently tested on a dynometer, the 16-cylinder engine generates a volcano-awakening 4,515 horsepower at 6,900 rpm and 3,519 lb-ft. of torque at 6,600 rpm when the turbos are programmed to provide 36 psi of boost. Devel explains the engine is theoretically capable of churning out over 5,000 horsepower with the right amount of boost, but the dyno it was tested on maxed out at 4,515 ponies.

Running regular pump gas, the 16-cylinder provides 3,006 horsepower at 6,900 rpm and 2,407 lb-ft. of torque at 6,400 rpm. Performance figures haven’t been published yet, so whether Devel’s initial predictions that the Sixteen will be capable of reaching 60 mph in a jaw-dropping 1.8 seconds and top out at nearly 350 mph are still accurate is anyone’s guess.

While Devel is presumably moving forward with plans to build the Sixteen, additional details such as when it will launch and where it will be sold are being kept under wraps for the time being. If it ever lands, expect the hypercar to land as an exclusive limited-edition model priced well into the seven digits.

India’s Mahindra & Mahindra has reportedly finalized its buyout of Italian design house Pininfarina.

The move is viewed as a significant piece of Mahindra’s global expansion plans, potentially giving the company a design edge across its wide range of group subsidiaries.

“The legendary high-end design credentials of Pininfarina will significantly enhance the design capabilities of the entire Mahindra group,” chairman Anand Mahindra said in a statement published by Bloomberg. “Given the increasing design sensibilities of today’s consumers, product design will greatly influence customer choice and experience, and hence our success.”

Already one of the largest automakers for the Indian market, Mahindra has had its eye on the US market for several years. The project was scrapped in 2012 amid legal disputes with dealers and difficulties certifying a US-compliant pickup. The company recently hinted at a second attempt, and its Korean subsidiary Ssangyong could also be preparing to take the plunge.

Pininfarina’s modern designers may be best known for their work with Ferrari, though the company has worked with a number of other automotive brands from Ford to Bentley.

The acquisition is reported to be worth $185 million USD.

Lamborghini has rejected the possibility of using the Urus SUV’s V8 engine in any other models.

Reports suggest a twin-turbocharged 4.0-liter powerplant is being developed by Lamborghini specifically for the Urus, representing a downsize shift from the Huracan‘s 5.2-liter V10 and the Aventador‘s mighty 6.5-liter V12.

Chief executive Stephan Winkelmann in 2012 hinted that a turbocharged engine was not out of the question for the Huracan, though not from the model’s initial launch.

The company is said to have debated wether to share the Urus engine with other models. The Italian marque expects the SUV to eventually account for more than half of its overall annual sales volume, suggesting the Urus itself may represent the answer to regulatory pressure without forcing any coupes or roadsters to immediately downsize.

Speaking to Autocar, Winkelmann also argued in favor of keeping true to the Raging Bull’s “one car, one engine” tradition.

“We are not saying that future engines will never beat what we have in our cars; we are saying as long as there is nothing that is better, especially at low revs or in terms of the sound that the V10 and V12 have, we stick to them,” he added.

Despite the Urus’ downsized engine and room for groceries or children, Winkelmann recently told LeftLane that Lamborghini will stop short of offering autonomous driving technology. The company appears to be positioning the crossover as a driver’s vehicle, built to deliver an exhilarating experience for which the brand is known.

The first units are expected to arrive in showrooms by the second half of 2018, each likely carrying a price tag around $200,000.

In a review of its industry sales data, Automotive News has found that the domestic automakers are curtailing large-scale sales to rental fleets, while some Asian OEMs have been picking up the slack.

General Motors especially has curtailed its “fleet dumping” in recent months, Automotive News says, while Hyundai, Kia, Nissan and Toyota (the latter two to a lesser degree) have seen an uptick over the same period of time.

The outlet also compared historical fleet sales figures to this year’s numbers, and found that only 13.6% of GM’s sales in 2015 so far were accounted for by rental fleet; in 2012, that number was 18.6–nearly one-fifth of the company’s total sales volume.

Of the “Detroit Three,” FCA is faring the worst, flirting with a total that could rival its 2012 numbers. Ford’s numbers have been more haphazard. While the company’s fleet sales have decreased from 15.4% of their total volume in 2012 to just 11% this year, their fleet volume has actually increased slightly year-to-date.

Hyundai, on the other hand, is trending the other direction. Through November, a whopping 22.4% of the company’s volume has gone to rental fleets. In 2012, that figure was below 10%.

An analyst for Edmunds.com said the corresponding uptick in rental sales from automakers such as Hyundai and Kia reflects their brands’ dependence on cars and car-based crossovers.

In other words? Trucks are hot, and the Koreans don’t sell many.