Rimac Rejected Volkswagen's Electric Bugatti Idea For a V16 Instead

Rimac pushed back, arguing for a clean-sheet design built around a naturally aspirated V16 serving as the core of a hybrid system. The Nevera had convinced him that too few buyers existed for ultra-expensive electric hypercars to justify making Bugatti's flagship a pure EV.

After Dieselgate, VW was pushing hard into electrification, and a battery-powered hypercar would have suited that strategy while leaning on what Rimac knew about building high-performance electric powertrains. Rimac already had the hardware to do it.

"When we started discussing with VW about our ownership of Bugatti and the future of Bugatti, they were pushing me to make the next Bugatti electric," Rimac told Automotive News Europe.

"I had an electric car platform already for the Nevera, which offered four-wheel drive, a 400-km/h top speed and the comfort of a cruiser that could be driven long distances." On paper, he said, it could have been a Bugatti, and it would have been far easier than developing a new combustion engine.

Market feedback changed his mind. "Based on the feedback from the market on the Nevera, I realized the market was going in a different direction," he said. "We decided to make the Tourbillon a V16 plug-in hybrid, which was absolutely the right decision." Nevera sales reinforced that conviction. Rimac revealed on Instagram that only 71 of the 1,914-horsepower EVs were sold against a planned run of 150 units.

That decision produced the Cosworth-powered Tourbillon, separate from Rimac Automobili. All 250 Tourbillons are already spoken for. The hypercar was engineered by Bugatti Rimac with no input from VW or Porsche, according to Rimac, and in early September Porsche sold its holdings in both Bugatti Rimac and Rimac Group.

"There are so many cool Bugattis we have planned in the product portfolio. We know what we want to bring to the market for the next 10 years," he said. "It's fine art on four wheels." VW, meanwhile, still serves the supercar crowd through Lamborghini, the Audi Nuvolari, and now, Porsche's Mission S concept.

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