Rimac Is About To Buy Bugatti From VW Group

According to a new report, VW has approved a deal that will see the Bugatti brand taken under the wing of Croatian firm Rimac
Rimac Is About To Buy Bugatti From VW Group

As VW Group ploughs billions of euros of investment into its electric future, Bugatti sits a little awkwardly in the mix. Here’s an automotive entity that’s all about excess - big power, big speeds, big money. Since that doesn’t fit with the direction the company is taking, the German car giant is flogging the legendary French brand.

Ironically, though, it’ll be an even more future-focused company taking the reigns: Rimac. According to a new report in Car Magazine, VW executives approved the sell-off last week, and the proposed takeover by the Croatian electric tech purveyor is currently awaiting sign off from the supervisory board.

Rimac Is About To Buy Bugatti From VW Group

Bugatti was arguably the most prized of Ferdinand Piech‘s mad pet projects, but there’s a plan in place to assuage potential opposition of the sale from the Porsche-Piech family, which owns a 50 per cent controlling stake in VW Group. The deal will be done via Porsche, which bought 10 per cent of Rimac in 2018, expanding to 15.5 per cent a year later. It’s understood the transfer will result in Porsche taking a much bigger slice of the pie, with 49 per cent targeted.

This is particularly attractive for Porsche and the wider group, as the point of Rimac isn’t the headline-grabbing 2000bhp electric hypercars - those are just low-volume showcases for the firm’s innovative, must-have EV technology. Already, Rimac has multiple companies including Aston Martin and Automobili Pininfarina using its components, while Hyundai and subsidiary Kia each owns a piece of the company.

Could Molsheim be used to produce the C_Two?
Could Molsheim be used to produce the C_Two?

Pivoting to electric vehicles on a large scale requires partners with the right expertise and knowledge. Rimac fits well with this - in a short space of time its high-density battery packs and powerful motors have become highly sought-after.

As for what Mate Rimac gets from all this, along with control of the Bugatti brand, he’ll also have use of the company’s space-age manufacturing facility, which Car notes would be the ideal place to build the C-Two, production of which hasn’t yet started. Apparently, the founder and CEO paid them a visit earlier in the year and liked what he saw.

Mate Rimac with Porsche CEO Oliver Blume
Mate Rimac with Porsche CEO Oliver Blume

It’s thought the handing of Molsheim’s keys to this young firm will trigger the departure of current Bugatti CEO Stephan Winkelmann. Lamborghini, which the exec ran for 11 years, is another subsidiary VW Group is reportedly keen to cast off, along with Bentley, Ducati and Ital Design.

Comments

Myrmeko (#CTSquad)

Probably i’m against carguyness, but i’m actually glad that W16 will get replaced by something else.
It just felt too overused.

09/17/2020 - 10:59 |
14 | 2

I kind of agree. I mean koenigsegg gets the same amount of power from a smaller engine and sounds much better. And yes I know they use different kind of fuel

09/17/2020 - 11:10 |
10 | 2
Freddie Skeates

VW Group accountants when Piech died:

09/17/2020 - 12:32 |
4 | 0
Tomislav Celić

As a Croat, and a Rimac fan, I’m quite interested in this

09/17/2020 - 18:41 |
6 | 0

Same

09/17/2020 - 21:24 |
2 | 0
Anonymous

Supposedly Seat is also on the chopping block they will fully merge with Cupra and then the name Seat will be sold off.

09/18/2020 - 07:24 |
0 | 0
Anonymous

hopefully this doesnt mean bugatti is going electric. While an electric bugatti would be cool, nothing beats the sound of that w16

09/21/2020 - 15:29 |
0 | 0

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