(CNN)Volkswagen Group and Porsche have agreed to create a new joint venture that combines Rimac, a Croatian company that makes electric supercars, with Bugatti.
The new company will be called Bugatti-Rimac and will make both Bugatti and Rimac cars. Bugatti, like Porsche, is part of the Volkswagen Group. Porsche also owns a stake in Rimac.
The Rimac Nevera is an all-electric supercar.Bugatti-Rimac will be based in Zagreb, Croatia, not far from Rimac’s current headquarters. Bugatti, meanwhile, will continue to build cars in its current home of Molsheim, France, according to an announcement from Porsche. It will continue to operate as a separate car brand although Bugatti and Rimac will jointly develop new Bugatti models, the announcement said.
What it's like to drive Bugatti's new $4 million supercarPorsche began investing in Rimac Automobili in 2018 and now owns a 24% stake in the company. Porsche will directly own 45% of Bugatti-RImac while Rimac will hold the remaining 55% stake. Bugatti is being transferred to the new joint venture by its parent company, Volkswagen Group.
“We are combining Bugatti’s strong expertise in the hypercar business with Rimac’s tremendous innovative strength in the highly promising field of electric mobility,” Porsche Chairman Oliver Blume said in the announcement.Read More
Bugatti Chiron at Bugatti’s headquarters in FranceRimac and Bugatti couldn’t have more different origins. Bugatti was founded in 1909, and made cars for royalty and celebrities, before shutting down shortly after World War II. The brand was revived in 1987, shut down again in 1995. Volkswagen recreated the Bugatti brand in the 1990s and early 2000s after purchasing the name, logo and the site of the company’s original headquarters in eastern France. Now, Bugatti assembles cars like the $3 million Chiron and the $6 million Divo, with gasoline-thirsty 16-cylinder engines, some variants of which can propel its cars to speeds over 300 miles an hour.Why the 911 will be the last Porsche model to go electricRimac, on the other hand, was founded by then-21-year-old Mate Rimac in 2009, and while it has developed electric cars like the $1 million, 1,224 horsepower Rimac Concept_One and the new $2.4 million 1,900-horsepower Rimac Nevera, it mostly specializes in electric powertrain and battery development. It has counted Jaguar, Aston Martin, and the Swedish supercar maker Koenigsegg among its clients.
The Croatian company is also supplying the engineering for the $2 million Pininfarina electric supercar being created by the Italian firm once famous for designing Ferraris.Mate Rimac will be the chief executive of Bugatti-Rimac. Two Porsche executives, including Blume, will have board seats at Bugatti-Rimac. The company is expected to be established by the end of the year.
Source: edition.cnn.com