MOLSHEIM, FRANCE - Big changes are afoot at Bugatti, following Rimac’s recent acquisition of a majority stake in the French hypercar specialist, which will see the formation of a new company called Bugatti Rimac.
This doesn’t mean that the Volkswagen Group will be out of the picture completely, with the German auto giant retaining a 45% stake. However Rimac, which builds the world’s fastest electric hypercar, will be in the driver’s seat, with its founder Mate Rimac expected to take the role of CEO.
Although the future product direction has yet to be officially confirmed, Mate Rimac reportedly has some big plans for Bugatti. In a recent interview with MotorTrend, Rimac hinted that he might do something ‘crazy’. "With this brand, you can do so much. Maybe an SUV or long hood coupe or something absolutely insane that no one thinks about," he told the US publication.
That said, hypercars will remain a priority, and Bugatti is set to launch a fully-electric vehicle by the end of this decade, MotorTrend reports, while a petrol-electric hybrid model is also on the cards for an earlier date.
And judging by what Rimac has concocted thus far, you can certainly expect even more insane levels of performance from future Bugatti’s.
Rimac recently announced that its all-electric Nevera, which produces 1427kW, broke the unofficial quarter mile world record for production cars with a time of 8.582 seconds. This narrowly beats the Nevera’s previous quarter-mile record of 8.62 seconds, which was achieved at an unprepared air strip in Rimac’s home country of Croatia earlier this year.
“Rimac and Bugatti are a perfect match in terms of what we each bring to the table. As a young, agile and fast-paced automotive and technology company, we have established ourselves as an industry pioneer in electric technologies,” Mate Rimac said back in July.