Porsche, Bugatti and Rimac join forces to create Bugatti-Rimac

A three-way deal. That is how the agreement announced by Porsche and Rimac to create a joint venture and bring in Bugatti can be described. In this way Volkswagen “sheds” Bugatti, a brand that does not deliver the profitability demanded by the German group, and which weighs down not only costs but also the range’s emissions.

The agreement gives rise to the new Bugatti-Rimac, a joint venture based in Zagreb (Croatia) in which Rimac will hold a 55% stake, with the remaining 45% held by Porsche. Let us recall that Porsche, in turn, maintains a direct 24% stake in Rimac’s shareholding, after progressively increasing it since its entry into the Croatian company in 2018.

To set up the new Bugatti-Rimac company, the French brand will be incorporated into this new venture by Volkswagen, its current owner. From there, the shares will be transferred to Porsche.

In other words, the operation takes the form that had already been anticipated in some media for more than half a year: Volkswagen “sells” Bugatti to Rimac through an agreement that allows Porsche to increase its stake in the Croatian electric supercar maker, although indirectly. Thus, Volkswagen retains part of the control over Bugatti, albeit through Porsche.

The beginning of the electric era at Bugatti

The CEO of Porsche, Oliver Blume, refers to the creation of this new company as a perfect symbiosis between the innovation of Rimac in electric mobility and the tradition and experience of Bugatti as a manufacturer of high-performance supercars. All of this without forgetting that Bugatti brings loyal customers to the brand and a worldwide dealership network that the new company will benefit from.

What seems clear is that we will not have to wait long to see Rimac’s electric propulsion technology in a Bugatti. Meanwhile, always under the umbrella of this new company, Bugatti will continue producing the Bugatti Chiron in Molsheim, France, from where its future models will also come. For its part, Rimac will continue manufacturing the Rimac Nevera.

And what about Porsche’s role? As we pointed out earlier, it is a mere strategic partner, which is no small thing. Both Oliver Blume, CEO of Porsche, and Lutz Meschke, the German brand’s head of finance and IT, will sit on the Supervisory Board of the new Bugatti-Rimac company, whose managing director will be Mate Rimac himself, CEO of the Croatian manufacturer. Once established, the new joint venture is expected to have 430 employees, 300 of them at its headquarters in Zagreb and another 130 at Bugatti’s headquarters in France.