Rimac will own a 55 percent stake and Porsche will own a 45 percent stake in the joint venture. The deal will take place in the fourth quarter. The Volkswagen Group transferred ownership of its Bugatti to Porsche to form a joint venture.
“With the joint venture, we will combine Bugatti’s expertise in supercars with the innovative ability of Rimac in the promising future of electric mobility,” said Oliver Blume, CEO of Porsche, at a virtual press conference to announce the collaboration.
Mate Rimac, the founding owner of the Croatian technology company, emphasized that the goal of the cooperation is to make the joint venture, which produces exclusive cars, profitable and financially successful. At the press conference, he did not rule out the possibility of listing the “garage company” he founded in 2009.
Volkswagen President Herbert Diess announced plans to set up a joint venture with Rimac in March. Porsche has been cooperating with the Croatian company for three years, and since then has acquired a 24 percent stake in it.
It is planned that the Bugatti-Rimack joint venture will have 430 employees, of whom 300 are at the headquarters of Rimac in Zagreb and 130 at the French Bugatti plant in Molsheim. The first new models of the collaboration will be the Bugatti Chiron internal combustion engine as well as the all-electric Rimac Nevera.
The Bugatti model range will be expanded with all-electric models in the mid-range and hybrid electric models in the meantime.
No specific date has been set for the release of the latest internal combustion engine model. According to the CEO of Porsche, “everything will depend on the needs of customers.” However, since the transition to electric models is such a big deal for low-volume brands, it’s likely that Rimac will be listed on the exchange, he noted. Add to that the fact that potential investors are waiting for the opportunity.
Bloom noted that Bugatti’s annual production volume is less than a hundred units, yet the company has made profits in recent years. The company also produces custom copies. Recently, for example, a customer paid €11 million net for a unique copy of “La Voiture Noire”. With a 1,500-horsepower 16-cylinder engine, the model consumes 43 liters of gasoline per 100 kilometers – and emits five times the average CO2 share allowed for new cars in the European Union.
Cover Photo: Getty Images
