A new Bugatti doesn’t happen very often. Sure, there have been a multitude of special editions but they’ve all been based on the same cars–the Veyron and Chiron. The former came out in 2005 while the latter broke cover in 2016, so it’s high time for a truly new car. The Molsheim-based elite marque has been hyping up the car for a while, and all will finally be revealed today.
It’s almost unbelievable that in the age of downsizing, Bugatti dares to put a V-16 engine in a production car. We’re all for it, of course. The W-16 replacement will eschew those four turbochargers by taking the naturally aspirated route. In the build-up to the world premiere, a teaser video featuring head honcho Mate Rimac reveals some of the other juicy secrets.
We get to learn the new Bugatti will indeed feature a hybrid powertrain based around the monstrous sixteen-cylinder engine. After taking out the turbos, the engineers found a solution to replace the extra grunt provided by forced induction in the two preceding models. Make that three since the EB110 launched before the VW era also had a quad-turbo setup. The unnamed “French” hypercar will use Rimac know-how by featuring no fewer than three electric motors.
One e-motor will sit at the rear and the other two will be installed at the front axle. The upcoming Bugatti will rely on a mid-mounted battery pack with a 25-kWh capacity to juice up the motors and even deliver an unspecified amount of electric range. This low-slung sports car could’ve been radically different considering Volkswagen’s original plan was to indirectly replace the Chiron with an electric SUV.
Mate Rimac took advantage of his newly acquired deciding power to convince the higher-ups from VW to build a hypercar. The next Bugatti will play in a rarified segment of V-16 cars, right up there with the Cizeta-Moroder V16T from the early 1990s. The first of its kind was the Cadillac V-16 launched in 1930, a year before the obscure Marmon Sixteen.
Rimac had been working on the V-16 for about two years before the unexpected merger with Bugatti. The subsequent Bugatti Rimac company founded in November 2021 is owned by Rimac Group (55 percent) and Porsche (45 percent). Mate Rimac has a 35 percent share in the Rimac Group, followed by Porsche with 22 percent and Hyundai with 11 percent.
The livestream is scheduled to start at 4 PM ET / 1 PM PST / 10 PM CEST / 8 PM GMT.
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