Croatian EV Specialist Rimac Has Officially Taken Over Bugatti!

Bugatti-Rimac will be the name of this new clashing automotive fusion, with Porsche owning 45% of the company.

The Volkswagen Group is one of the world’s largest automotive manufacturers. There is a diverse array of brands under their banner, including Audi, Bentley, Porsche, and Lamborghini. Often a forgotten member of this group is French hyper luxury car automaker, Bugatti.

Although an undeniable household name, Bugatti has struggled to find its place amongst this group. This is partially due to the fact that Volkswagen has in recent years shifted its focus to electrification and sustainability (let’s not forget about the 2015 emissions scandal which served as a catalyst).

The lavish ultra-exclusive releases of cars such as the $18 million La Voiture Noire don’t really make sense within the green Volkswagen narrative. Thus, a change must come from within.

However, there are political and bureaucratic reasons that prevented Volkswagen from simply just dropping Bugatti. So an intelligent compromise was produced- the introduction of a new entity.

Out with the old, in with the new

Welcome, Rimac Automobili. The Croatian EV company will be serving as the new partner to Bugatti as reported by Arstechnica. On Monday, it was revealed that that this merger was in fact to be finalized by the end of the year, with the support of majority holder, Porsche.

Manufacturing will continue to take place in Bugatti’s home of Molsheim, France, while the new headquarters of the joint venture will be in Zagreb, Croatia.

Porsche has believed strongly in the value in this EV company since 2018. They initially picked up a 10% stake in the company and have now increased their position to over double, with 24% ownership.

Their investment is finally paying off with news of this new partnership. The joint brand will continue production both of the company’s current models, the W16-powered Chiron hypercar and the fully-electric Nevera hypercar.

The future of electric hyper luxury looks good

Arstechnica asked Rimac CEO Mate Rimac about his vision for the brand moving forward as a result of this partnership. His response was very clear,

You know the easiest thing, what maybe some people expect might happen, is to take the Nevara and slam Bugatti on it and call it a Bugatti, but that’s absolutely not going to happen…We will not just recycle what we have, we will not like just restyle the Chiron to make a new car, or just hybridize the Chiron. We are developing a complete new product from the ground up—everything—because we think that’s the best way to go, and that product will still have a combustion engine.

The burning question that many Bugatti purists also are wondering is if this partnership means the death of the high-performance combustion engine, a staple of the brand. However, Rimac states that “within this decade, there will be fully electric Bugattis, but I can also tell you that at the end of this decade, there will be still combustion engine Bugattis.”

The clashing ideologies and histories of these two brands is just vast enough that something completely unique may arise by combining their strengths. Bugatti will be continuing their focus on craftsmanship and quality, while Rimac will supply the electric technology to bring the brand to the next level.

We are genuinely interested to see where the brand will go from here and will keep updates on their first official collaborative project. Stay tuned!