Rimac And Porsche Will Join Forces To Run Bugatti

Mar. 17, 2021 1:41 PM ET by Sebastian Cenizo Industry News / 1 Comment

VW Group suggests that Porsche will run the French firm with help from Croatia.

This month has been an exciting time for Croatian manufacturer Rimac. Porsche just increased its stake in the company, its C_Two electric hypercar is performing brilliantly in testing, and while all this is going on, there have been rumors that Rimac could buy Bugatti. It's an interesting story, considering that Rimac is a relatively new company and Bugatti is one of the world's oldest, most prestigious, and presumably, most expensive auto brands around. Well, if you've been trying to wrap your head around how this could possibly work, the head of the Volkswagen Group, Herbert Diess, has just shed some light on the truth of the potential deal.

Bugatti

Speaking at the group's annual media conference, Diess had this to say: "Transferring [Bugatti] to Rimac isn't true. Porsche is currently preparing a partnership that's going to be under discussion with Rimac, and Porsche will be taking care of that. The whole thing isn't yet finalized. What we want to do is transition responsibility of Bugatti to Porsche, and Porsche in all probability will establish a joint venture with Rimac, with a minority share of Porsche."

Basically, VW will transfer ownership of Bugatti to Porsche, which will then evaluate how Rimac could fit into the picture at Bugatti. With Rimac's expertise in EVs, this means that Porsche could own Bugatti going forward but would potentially oversee Rimac's development of an electric successor to the Chiron.

Bugatti

Of course, this is just speculation at this point and there's a good chance that Porsche could co-develop new Bugatti models using experience gained from the Taycan. Either way, moving control of Bugatti to a dedicated sportscar manufacturer like Porsche makes sense. Diess continues: "We have more synergies [between Porsche and Bugatti] over there, such as carbon fiber bodies and high-performance batteries." Clearly, Diess thinks that the Volkswagen Group's mass-market approach to management of a company isn't a perfect fit for Bugatti, and Porsche would be better suited to giving Bugatti that personal touch. With Rimac still only potentially involved with Bugatti going forward, we'll have to wait for Porsche to announce its plans for the brand once the deal is finalized.