Rimac Buys Bugatti, Teams Up With Porsche
Photo: Rimac
Porsche and Rimac, the Croatian electric car company that makes the fastest production car in the world, have formed a new joint venture that incorporates Bugatti.
The new venture, dubbed Bugatti-Rimac, is owned 55 percent by Rimac and 45 percent by Porsche. Volkswagen, the former owner of Bugatti, will transfer the shares first to Porsche and then to Rimac. Porsche also owns a 24 percent stake in Rimac, though the companies stated this would not give Porsche a controlling interest in Bugatti.
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If this is starting to look like a complicated web of corporate connections, that’s because it is. Fortunately, Rimac created a handy graphic to help you get a better picture of the shareholder structure, displayed below.
One thing omitted from the graphic, which only complicates things further, is that the Volkswagen Group has a controlling stake in Porsche — and that Porsche SE, a holding company owned by the Porsche-Piëch family, has a controlling stake in Volkswagen Group. To the engineers out there: this is what happens when your kids go to business school.
It might seem strange that Volkswagen would let go of Bugatti only for Porsche — the company it owns or the one that owns it, depending on your perspective — to pick up nearly half of the shares, but Bugatti has been a thorn in Volkswagen’s side for some time now. The 112-year-old French automaker has rarely been profitable. By parting ways with it, Volkswagen will have an easier time making its push into electrification.
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The forming of Bugatti-Rimac will also push Bugatti and Porsche toward the electric hypercar future. The recently launched, 1,914-horsepower electric Rimac Nevera has already set an unofficial world record on a non-prepped drag strip, in the process making the fastest Ferrari in the world look slow. Rimac batteries are currently used by the Koenigsegg Regera and the Aston Martin Valkyrie, and Porsche’s confidence in the tech is one of the reasons the automaker raised its stake in Rimac to 24 percent, up from its initial 10 percent ownership in 2018.
“We are combining Bugatti’s strong expertise in the hypercar business with Rimac’s tremendous innovative strength in the highly promising field of electromobility,” said Oliver Blume, chairman of the executive board at Porsche AG. “Bugatti is contributing a tradition-rich brand, iconic products, a loyal customer base and a global dealer network to the joint venture. In addition to technology, Rimac is contributing new development and organizational approaches.”
Regardless of the shareholder structure, one thing is for certain: expect more ridiculous, balls-to-the-wall-crazy electric cars to come from Rimac, Bugatti, and Porsche in the next few years.
Kurt Verlin was born in France and lives in the United States. Throughout his life he was always told French was the language of romance, but it was English he fell in love with. He likes cats, music, cars, 30 Rock, Formula 1, and pretending to be a race car driver in simulators; but most of all, he just likes to write about it all. See more articles by Kurt.