Mate Rimac, the CEO of the Rimac Group and the newly formed joint venture between Porsche and Rimac, called Bugatti Rimac has vowed that future Bugatti badged vehicles will retain the iconic DNA of the French hypercar maker. He said that its cars wouldn't be rebranded Rimac Neveras, and he also said that even the internal combustion engine has a future.
"What some people expect might happen is that we take a Nevera and slam a Bugatti logo on it and call it a Bugatti. That's absolutely not going to happen. That's not what we're going to do. I'm a car guy, and while of course, we want to make a profitable company, we will not just recycle what we have," said Mate Rimac.
He added that the internal combustion engine will be only done away with, by the end of the decade, however, when the internal combustion engine is done away with, the plan is to create a heavily hybridised combustion engine. Perhaps, Rimac will help Bugatti miniaturise its massive quad-turbo W16 8.0-litre engine and combine it with an electrical element.
Rimac and Bugatti merger has created a devastating hypercar company
Mate Rimac revealed that the changes to Bugatti will go beyond what kind of propulsion its cars end up using. It will also change the sales strategy moving away from the single model philosophy. He said these cars will be very different and exciting.
As of now, however, the plan is to keep concentrating on the production of the Chiron whose 300th car was just assembled. The focus is to complete the 500 unit run which could take a couple of years. There are more special editions of the car in the pipeline which could lure more wealthy customers who now many want it because Chiron will be the last fully traditional internal combustion engine based Bugatti's before the impact of Rimac starts to emerge on its product portfolio.
