$13M Bugatti La Voiture Noire Is The Most Expensive Christmas Decoration On The Planet

Most of this year’s Christmas markets have been cancelled in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, including the one in Molsheim, France, which is the home of Bugatti.

Nonetheless, the automaker decided to celebrate the winter holidays by using the La Voiture Noire as a highly expensive decoration.

Placed inside a glass container, the one-off hypercar, which was sold for €11 million, or around $13.4 million at the current exchange rates, excluding taxes, is exhibited next to the Christmas tree in the French city.

“I am very grateful to Bugatti for this wonderful gift to our city”, said the Mayor of Molsheim, Laurent Furst. “Now all residents of Molsheim have the very special opportunity to admire this unique masterpiece, the ‘La Voiture Noire’, of which Ettore Bugatti would certainly have been very proud.”

“Nothing can replace the Molsheim Christmas market”, added Christophe Piochon, Site Manager and Managing Director Production and Logistics at Bugatti. “However, it is important for us to bring joy to people from the region in these difficult times.”

Unveiled at last year’s Geneva Motor Show, the La Voiture Noire, which is French for ‘The Black Car’, marked the brand’s 110th anniversary and paid homage to the legendary Type 57 SC Atlantic by Jean Bugatti, which was lost at the beginning of WWII and was never found.

Boasting a handcrafted gloss black carbon fiber body, it uses the same underpinnings as the Chiron and Divo and packs Bugatti’s signature quad-turbo 8.0-liter W16 engine that pumps out 1,500 PS (1,479 HP / 1,103 kW) and 1,600 Nm (1,180 lb-ft) of torque.