Bugatti Wants to Build a Car that is Cheaper than the Chiron

Before we get too excited, we’re still looking at a cost of at least a half-million. And it could get an electrified powertrain.

Changes may be coming to the Bugatti lineup. In an article with Bloomberg, Bugatti President, Stephan Winkelmann talked about the possibility of a new car, and a cheaper price tag.   

According to Winkelmann, the company has been considering launching a new model, which could be cheaper than the $3 million Chiron and would also be electric-powered. “There, I would see us doing a battery electric vehicle,” he said. “The balance between performance and comfort is much more important, and it’s about daily usability. This is what I see.”  

Hanna Elliott, author of the Bloomberg story wrote that: “Winkelmann declined to give additional specifics about the cost, chassis, and performance of the potential car but said the company has already begun analyzing the prospect. Any new Bugatti will still cost a lot: It stands to reason that even a far ‘lesser’ creation could cost a half-million dollars.”

At present, the Chiron is the cheapest car sold by Bugatti. It features a 8.0-liter quad-turbo engine that produces 1,479 horsepower and 1,180 pound-feet of torque. Meanwhile, the Divo has a price of $5.8 million. And, the one-off Bugatti La Voiture Noire, previewed at the 2019 Geneva Auto Show, has a price of $18.9 million. It is remarkable how much money car customers have been willing to spend on supercars, hypercars, and ultra-luxury vehicles.

All ultra-luxury carmakers have been expanding their product portfolios. Bugatti’s siblings, Lamborghini and Bentley, have launched SUVs. Meanwhile, Aston Martin has revived the Lagonda sub-brand. Lagonda will sell all-electric, hi-tech luxury cars. And even Ferrari has been working on a crossover.  

However, Bugatti is a subsidiary of the Volkswagen Group and the latter’s CEO, Herbert Diess, wants the conglomerate’s profitability to improve. “We intend to work with the brands and boost efficiency by around 30 percent by 2025: in terms of factory costs, productivity and investments,” Diess said in a press conference last year.

For 2018, the VW Group posted an operating profit margin of 5.9 percent (after including the costs related to the diesel scandal). By comparison, the BMW Group posted an operating profit margin of more than 9 percent. Ultimately, we wonder if the VW Group executives will approve the plan to develop a new Bugatti model, unless they are confident that the car would significantly increase the group’s profits.  

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