Volkswagen held their annual media conference earlier today and the company used the event to clear up Bugatti’s future.
As you may recall, Volkswagen put Bugatti, Ducati and Lamborghini under review last year. Several months later, in mid-December, it was announced that “Lamborghini and Ducati will remain part of the Volkswagen Group.”
The company has been mum on Bugatti, but Volkswagen Group CEO Herbert Diess used today’s event to dismiss rumors the brand would be offloaded to Rimac. As Autocar noted, Diess said “Porsche is currently preparing a partnership that’s going to be under discussion with Rimac, and Porsche will be taking care of that.”
Also Read: VW Group To Decide On Bugatti-Rimac Tie-Up This Year
He went on to explain nothing has been finalized, but Volkswagen wants to transfer responsibility of Bugatti to Porsche. Once that occurs, “Porsche in all probability will establish a joint venture with Rimac, with a minority share of Porsche.”
Porsche recently invested €70 ($83 / £60) million into Rimac to increase their stake in the Croatian company to 24%. Given that sizeable stake, it’s not surprising that a joint venture is a strong possibility.
In other Bugatti news, worldwide sales dropped to 77 units last year. However, that’s only a 6.1% decline from 2019 when the brand sold 82 units.
Furthermore, Volkswagen’s annual report revealed a “new derivative of the Chiron” will be available later this year. That’s presumably the Chiron Super Sport 300+ which is due in mid-2021.
