Reorganization at VW: Bugatti comes to Porsche

[ad_1]

Status: 07/06/2021 1:29 p.m.

The noble sports car manufacturer Bugatti leaves VW and slips under the roof of Porsche and the Croatian manufacturer Rimac. This ends the twelve-brand strategy of the Wolfsburg-based group.

After the luxury brand Bentley was subordinated to the VW subsidiary Audi, the premium sports car manufacturer Bugatti is now also leaving the Wolfsburg-based group. To this end, Bugatti is being brought into a joint venture by its current owner, Volkswagen, that Porsche founded with its Croatian partner Rimac.

The 33-year-old entrepreneur Mate Rimac, who is also known as the Croatian Elon Musk, has shown interest in the super-expensive (2.4 million euros for a new car) and fast Bugatti bolides for a long time and should in future have 55 percent of the shares in the new joint Hold venture. Porsche wants to keep a minority stake of 45 percent in the company. However, Porsche has also had a stake in Rimac since 2018, holding 24 percent of the shares. Bugatti is to stay at its historic headquarters in Molsheim, Alsace near Strasbourg, where the company was founded in 1909.

Bugatti no longer suits VW

“We came to the conclusion that the Bugatti brand no longer really suits a volume manufacturer like Volkswagen,” said Porsche boss Oliver Blume in the “Handelsblatt”, explaining the move. At the same time, it was a matter of maintaining the traditional Bugatti brand. “The Bugatti brand embodies fascination and passion, stands for cutting-edge automotive technology and has a worldwide fan base,” says Blume. “And it is profitable.” This led to the approach of founding a joint venture with the Croatian electrical pioneer Rimac.

Initially, two so-called hypercars are to be produced, the Bugatti Chiron with a combustion engine and the Rimac Nevera electric sports car, which will soon be launched. Both vehicles will cost over a million euros. From a business point of view, the move shouldn’t bring any major changes for Volkswagen. Bugatti’s numbers are very low, 77 units were delivered in 2020. The company is silent about profit margins and concrete financial data.

The 33-year-old Croatian Mate Rimac is considered a brilliant inventor and is compared to Elon Musk

Image: picture alliance / PIXSELL

A dream should come true for Rimac

The farewell still has a symbolic meaning. Former VW board member and supervisory board chief Ferdinand Piëch had built up an ever larger collection of brands at that time. “Twelve is a good number” – this is how the patriarch, who died almost two years ago, once commented on his urge to buy when Porsche was added as a VW brand after a takeover battle with the Wolfsburgers in 2009. In 2012, the subsidiary Audi then achieved another coup with the takeover of the Italian motorcycle manufacturer Ducati, which actually completed the dozen. The Bugatti brand was incorporated into Volkswagen in 1998.

For the entrepreneur Rimac, the partnership with Porsche should be a dream come true. Rimac, born in Bosnia in 1988, is considered an ingenious inventor who already attracted attention as a teenager with inventions such as a high-tech glove that replaced a computer keyboard. At 19, he and friends designed their first electric sports car. The design convinced a financier from Abu Dhabi, so that the car could also be built. In 2018, Porsche joined Rimac. Hyundai is also involved in the Croatian’s company. The next step now follows with the joint venture under the Bugatti Rimac brand.

Bugatti soon in Croatian hands – Dax expected unchanged

Bianca von der Au, HR, 6 July 2021 1:21 p.m.

[ad_2]

Source link

Related Articles