Bugatti has entered an important new age through its partnership with Rimac and according to the man himself, Mate Rimac, the famed French car manufacturer will flourish in the coming years.
While recently speaking with Autocar, Rimac said that he will bring costs under control at Bugatti as it adopts electrification to remain relevant with the broader auto industry.
“On a car-by-car basis, Bugatti is very successful,” he told the publication. “People would be surprised how profitable each [Chiron] is; I certainly was.” Despite this, Mate Rimac noted that Bugatti has spent exorbitant amounts of money in developing new models, partly because it has outsourced a lot of work to other companies.
“It cost [Bugatti] more to create the Bugatti Chiron from the Bugatti Veyron, which has the same W16 engine and eight-speed gearbox, than we spent developing our Rimac Nevera from scratch,” he revealed.
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Earlier this year, Mate Rimac revealed that Bugatti models will continue to be sold with combustion engines for “some time,” although the next Bugatti’s powertrain will be “heavily electrified.” Many details about this new model remain under wraps but it has apparently been in the works for the past 18 months and is expected to serve as a successor to the Chiron. If that’s the case, then it can be expected to offer staggering levels of performance.
In deciding the future of the Bugatti brand, the Volkswagen Group had to choose between investing billions into EVs or killing off the carmaker entirely. The idea of merging with Rimac then came up.
“I see this new arrangement as a win-win-win-win,” Mate says. “It’s a win for us, having a wonderful brand with a 113-year tradition. It’s a win for Volkswagen, because Bugatti has a great future, they have a shareholding and we will keep costs under control. It’s a win for the employees, because we will expand. And it’s a win for customers, because we have exciting new products coming. We won’t just hump along; we will flourish.”
