These cars represent the pinnacle of deluxe personal transport and they’re all highlights of the coming year: check out our picks for the top 10 ultra-luxury cars of 2023
1. Lotus Eletre
A few remaining legacy manufacturers have been managing to resist the urge of cashing in on the SUV buying frenzy, but slowly the 2020s decade is sucking everyone into the vast SUV void. A void full of lovely money by the way. Lotus is next, as the legendary British sports car specialist delivers its first ever effort at making anything close to an SUV, and what’s more the new Lotus Eletre is also a fully electric SUV.
2. Audi Q6 e-tron
Audi has committed to going all-electric by 2033, and stopping production of fossil-fuel burning engines entirely, and the German brand is already making inroads with its steadily growing EV line-up of vehicles. In 2023 the main highlight for Audi is the Q8 e-tron electric SUV, which you will be able to easily personalise to cost in the region of $150,000. Audi’s electric SUV flagship is a proper performance car in its ultimate SQ8 specification, delivering 500 horsepower and a claimed range of more than 450km.
3. Rolls-Royce Spectre
On the back of a momentous year for Rolls-Royce in the marque’s 118-year long, the Crewe-based luxury manufacturer is gearing up to launch its first ever electric vehicle, the new Rolls-Royce Spectre. They pulled out all the stops for this one, and company CEO Torsten Müller-Ötvös is confident that it is the most perfect product that Rolls-Royce has ever produced. The company’s engineers meticulously tested every aspect of the Spectre to ensure ultimate comfort remains a top priority, and during development extreme testing simulated more than 400 years of use for a Rolls-Royce. The result is a vehicle with planar suspension delivering the most comfortable ride quality possible thanks to the Rolls-Royce hallmark ‘magic carpet ride’.
4. Ferrari Purosangue
Yes, yes, even Ferraris making SUVs now despite the Italians claiming they’d never do it for years, but we all secretly knew the inevitable was coming. Or is it coming? Because you can’t actually order the new Ferrari Purosangue. When Ferrari announced its first-ever SUV demand was so high they had to stop taking orders because the first two years of production are booked out. So if you’ve only just come around to the news, you’d better have some strong connection if you with to get behind the wheel of the V12-engined Purosangue.
5. BMW XM
BMW certainly wasn’t afraid to cause a sensation with the reveal of the company’s new BMW i7 luxury flagship, and the design still has people arguing months later. But we only need to wait a little while for the BMW design department to shock us again, and the upcoming BMW XM is the car for the job. This imposing grand SUV is certainly arresting in its styling, and sits on the very top of BMW’s SUV line-up as an exclusive model built by the company’s famed M department. Developed with first-class comfort in mind, the BMW XM still offers remarkable performance levels thanks to a hybrid drivetrain consisting of twin-turbocharged V8 engine and an electric motor delivering 653 horsepower.
6. Aston Martin DBS 770 Ultimate
British car maker Aston Martin is readying to reveal its flagship Grand Tourer, the upcoming Aston Martin DBS 770 Ultimate, and as the name denotes, it is a range-topping finale producing 770 horsepower. Ensuring exclusivity, Aston Martin will hand build just 499 examples of the car which guarantees immediate collector status.
7. Bentley Batur
Crewe based luxury marque Bentley revealed the stunning Batur model earlier last summer, and this year the manufacturer will begin delivering the series which is ultra limited to just 18 examples. The new Bentley Batur is the most powerful car in the history of the brand, producing 740 horsepower thanks to a twin-turbocharged 6.0-litre W12-cylinder engine that’s so synonymous with Bentley playing a leading role for the manufacturer in the last 20 years. Each customer gets to collaboratively design their own car with an unheard of level os personalisation available down to the tiniest detail.
8. Lamborghini Huracan Sterrato
Lifted supercars is a bit of a theme at the moment in case you haven’t noticed, and Lamborghini wants to get in on the action with the new Huracan Sterrato. A top speed of just 260km/h may not sound like much for a Lamborghini, but the Huracan Sterrato is a mid-engined two-seater supercar destined to roam’ beyond the concrete’, as the Italians put it. Featuring a special Rally driving mode, this Lamborghini rides 44mm higher than usual with a wider track and underbody protection so you can feel slightly more relaxed about getting lost in your supercar.
9. Maserati GranTurismo
Every manufacturer across the industry is facing the same challenges regarding the timing and extent of its EV push: Maserati simply chose to place its eggs in both baskets, developing the new Maserati GranTurismo as a petrol-powered model while at the same time offering an all-electric variant. The svelte new design is a classic adaptation of the Grand Touring body style, and petrolheads can take solace in the combustion-engined version featuring the latest-generation 490-horsepower 3.0-litre V6 engine. The electric variant of the new GranTurismo is even more powerful, sending 760 horsepower to the wheels.
10. Mercedes-AMG C 63
Downsizing is not something you normally associate with fiery Mercedes-AMG monsters, but for the latest generation Mercedes-AMG C 63 S E Performance, the Germans in an almost unprecedented move downsized from the usual fire-belching V8 to a regular little four-cylinder engine. Of course they then had to make it the world’s most powerful production four-cylinder engine ever, which when teamed up with a two-speed electric motor position at the rear, develops a combined grand total of 680 horsepower.
