32-year-old set to acquire Bugatti in electrifying deal

In a scoop by Car Magazine this morning, it has announced that a deal is soon to be signed-off between VW and Rimac, to off-load their luxury hyper-car brand Bugatti to the Croatian EV-firm.

Bugatti, as you are probably aware, is the current jewel in the crown of the Volkswagen Group portfolio. It purchased the French marque in 1998, under the instruction of then VW chairman, the late, Ferdinand Piech.

Piech's ambition for Bugatti, which he saw to fruition, was for it to become the builder of the greatest road-cars, in both performance and luxury. It began with the Veyron in 2005, which became, at the time, the fastest road-car in the world.

In 2016, this evolved into the Chiron, which, in Super Sport 300+ guise, became the first road-car to break the 300mph barrier.

While others have created cars as fast, if not faster since, the brilliance of Bugatti was that not only could their creations achieve mind-bending performance, they were also as civilised and easy to use as a VW Golf.

Bugatti was the peak of Piech's mission for the VW group to dominate the automotive industry. During his reign, he also acquired Skoda, SEAT, Bentley, Lamborghini and Porsche, to name just a few.

Then in 2015, Piech fall out of favour with the VW board and just weeks after his departure from the company, Dieselgate happened. The last five years has seen VW experience more turmoil than it ever has in it's 83-year-history.

The late Ferdinand Piech

With key members of management arrested and jailed, others awaiting trial, massive fines in the hundreds of billions and a diesel infrastructure they had invested heavily in, now seen as the devil, VW is in a phase of recovery and change.

VW executives no longer want to invest in high-performance, low-volume hyper-cars. Their new strategy for the future is, electrification, autonomy and returning to the roots of their name and to create the people's car.

Bugatti currently doesn't fit in in this new-world VW strategy. So that's where Rimac comes in.

Rimac, if you are unaware, is a Croatian manufacturer of electric hyper-cars and electric powertrain technology for the greater automotive industry.

Their output so far has been small. With only one production model, the 2013 Concept-One, a 1200-horsepower, fully electric hyper-car, of which they built just eight. One of which, Richard Hammond famously crashed in a ball of flames

They have been developing their second car, the C-Two, for the last five years. A 1900+ horsepower car, that is soon to go into production.

The technology developed by Rimac to create these crazy machines has caught the eye of the wider industry, with big manufacturers like Hyundai and Jaguar investing in the firm. The biggest name to join in on the act however, was Porsche, who in 2018 bought 10% of Rimac and since, in 2019, a further 5.5%.

Not bad for a company only started in 2009, by a then 21-year-old, Mate Rimac.

Mate Rimac

So, if the VW supervisory board sign-off on the off-loading of Bugatti to Rimac, it will likely transfer it through Porsche for a greater stake in Rimac.

This will give the VW group a massive investment in one of the leaders of EV technology and Rimac gets arguably one the greatest automotive brands, which it can market it's electric hyper-cars under.

Some will see the demise of W-16 combustion engines, replaced by batteries and electric motors as a sad day, but so the future of the car-industry goes.

This could also be the beginning by VW of a stripping of brands. It's also rumoured to be looking for buyers for Lamborghini and Bentley, although a certain global pandemic has slowed that process somewhat.

Nothing stands still in the world of the motor-car however, which is highlighted by this industry shifting news. More to follow.