Bugatti merges with Rimac to create a new hypercar venture
Bugatti and Rimac have joined hands to create a new hypercar venture called Bugatti-Rimac, with its headquarters located in Zagreb, Croatia. Operations will commence by the end of 2021. Rimac now has a majority stake of 55% in the joint venture, while the rest is held by Porsche, which operates Bugatti on behalf of their parent company Volkswagen. Here are more details.
Rimac Automobili will be renamed Rimac Group
The ownership structure of the current Rimac Automobili will be unchanged. However, it will be renamed as Rimac Group. The Croatian firm's founder, Mate Rimac, enjoys the largest stake of 37%, while Porsche comes in second place with a 24% share after it invested $83 million in March. Finally, Hyundai is the third-largest shareholder in Rimac Automobili with a 12% stake.
Mate Rimac will be the CEO of the new company
Porsche will play a strategic role in the new venture. The company's CEO Oliver Blume and Deputy Chairperson Lutz Meschke will serve as members of its Supervisory Board. However, the post of Bugatti-Rimac's CEO will be held by 33-year-old Mate Rimac.
The JV will initially create two cars
As part of the deal, the JV will initially produce two vehicles. They include an all-new electric Nevera sporting a Rimac badge and a W16-powered Chiron under the Bugatti moniker. The latter will continue to be manufactured at Molsheim, France. More jointly developed cars, possibly hybrid or fully electric, will join the range in the future.
'Bugatti's models are more than just hypercars'
Hinting at the future of Bugatti models, Rimac said, "In its heritage, Bugatti has models that are more than just hypercars." "There's an opportunity for Bugatti in the future to have very interesting cars that are completely different to other models on the market, while Rimac remains a maker of very high-performance sports cars. But we haven't figured that out ourselves yet."
