Bugatti has ‘absolutely’ no plans to ditch internal combustion engines, says its EV-pioneering CEO
Fully electric vehicles are not the future for hypercars, says Mate Rimac, who also sees Asia-Pacific as an ‘untapped’ market for the brand
[SINGAPORE] What happens when a 37-year-old electric vehicle (EV) pioneer heads a traditional high-luxury and ultra-high-performance car brand – with over a century of history powered by huge, inefficient petrol engines?
Not a quiet, fully digital Bugatti EV, and not plans to ditch internal combustion engines (ICE) any time soon, either; but a successful new model that is sold out until 2029.
“All the customers thought that when I came into Bugatti, it would become completely electric and digital,” said Mate Rimac, the CEO of Bugatti Rimac. “And they completely got the opposite.”
He added that the company will “absolutely” continue with its current petrol-electric drivetrains. “We don’t plan to have a fully electric Bugatti at all.”
Speaking to the media at a celebration of the Bugatti Veyron hypercar’s 20th anniversary in Singapore, Rimac said Bugatti’s future models will all be hybrids – vehicles that combine ICE with electric power.
“I think that this combination of a very strong, sophisticated, electric power train with decent range, together with a very emotional combustion engine, is the right combination,” he said.
BT in your inbox
Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox.
Hybrid theory
The French hypercar brand Bugatti was founded in 1909. Though it enjoyed much success in early automobile racing and high-performance cars, it went bust in the 1950s.
The brand’s modern revival truly started in 1998 under the ownership of the Volkswagen Group, as a pet project of then VW Group CEO Ferdinand Piech to create the fastest car in the world, the Veyron.
At its launch in 2005, the Veyron was the world’s fastest, most powerful and most expensive car, with a price of around one million euros.
SEE ALSO
In 2021, a joint venture – Bugatti Rimac – took over the brand, with ownership split between Croatia-based Rimac Group and VW-owned Porsche at 55 per cent and 45 per cent, respectively.
Rimac is the president and majority shareholder of Rimac Group, which supplies EV components to major carmakers and is producing its own robotaxi.
Rimac’s rise in the automotive world is a remarkable one. Born in “one of the poorest towns” in Bosnia, his family moved to Germany in 1988 to avoid the Yugoslav Wars; they later relocated to Croatia.
An interest in electronics and cars prompted Rimac to convert an old BMW car into an EV after its engine exploded. Success in racing this converted vehicle helped him attract investors, while consulting work in EVs helped pay the bills.
In 2009, he founded an eponymous brand focusing on electric hypercars; he said this experience has helped steer Bugatti to new success.
Rimac (the brand) has sold about 70 units of its Nevera electric hypercar since its announcement in May 2023. That makes the car, which is priced starting at two million euros (S$3 million), the most commercially successful product of its type to date.
But it pales against Bugatti’s latest model, the Tourbillon, which is around twice the price at 3.8 million euros and was announced only in June last year. Its 250-car production run has been entirely sold out.
“I don’t believe that EV hypercars are the future, in this (section of the) market,” said Rimac. “Even with the strength of Bugatti’s brand and the design of the Tourbillon, if it were electric, I think we would have a hard time selling these cars.”
He added that if customers had their way, the cars would be purely conventional cars with engines alone, not hybrids. But the advantages of hybrid technology lie not only in adding performance; they also help make the cars legal to drive in certain jurisdictions or incur fewer penalties.
Asia: Investment potential?
Rimac sees Asia-Pacific as a so-far “untapped” market for the brand, whose largest markets are the US, EU and Middle East.
For South-east Asia, Bugatti has a longstanding partnership with Singapore-headquartered Wearnes Automotive as a dealer.
Wearnes representatives said Bugatti sales have been untroubled by recent macroeconomic turmoil. Despite the sky-high price tags, five Tourbillons have been sold in South-east Asia, with more customers on a waiting list.
Bugatti has also expanded its footprint in Asia, entering the Hong Kong market officially in 2023. It will open a new dealership with dealership group Kingsway in Shanghai, China, on Thursday (Oct 16).
But Rimac said the new dealership will not expand sales significantly, as the company is still focused on small batches rather than big sales figures.
“This year will be a record year. We’ll produce, for the first time, over 100 cars, and we are ramping slightly up… as we don’t want our customers to wait too long for the cars, because we have sold out until the end of the decade,” he added.
In comparison, Ferrari produced 13,752 cars last year, and Rolls-Royce 5,712.
Bugatti makes cars only in left-hand drive, so they cannot be legally driven on the road in the region’s key markets of Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and Singapore without special exemptions.
It is the same case in China, despite it being a left-hand drive market, as Bugatti’s cars have yet to achieve road-going approval there.
But Rimac describes Singapore as a “model market” for the region. Despite the fact that the cars cannot be driven on the road, demand is still strong as the cars are valued “like art” or as investments.
Most Bugattis sell for more than their original sticker price. In July, a 2007 Bugatti Veyron – which sold for around £1 million (S$1.7 million) at launch – was auctioned by Bonhams for £1.5 million.
In fact, expanding its market reach could help Bugatti’s customers in that department.
“Because there is demand, (customers) can get more than they paid for (with a Bugatti). That’s really important for us. And you can see that with Veyron and Chiron models,” said Rimac. “So having a bigger market, having more markets, just helps with that.”
Copyright SPH Media. All rights reserved.
