Rimac poised to purchase Bugatti from VW: report

CROATIAN electric hypercar specialist Rimac could be set to take ownership of one of the world’s most famous and ground-breaking marques, Bugatti.

According to a reports out of Europe, Bugatti’s parent company, Volkswagen, is on the cusp of signing the legendary hypercar brand to Rimac in exchange for Porsche being given an up-to-49-per-cent stake in the EV brand.

In an article by British publication Car Magazine, Volkswagen sources revealed executives of the German giant had already approved the deal last week with the final sign-off yet to be made by the supervisory board.

The word is Volkswagen no longer wants to pour money and workers into the “hobby brands” acquired by former CEO Ferdinand Piech and instead divert those finances and efforts into expanding their electrification, digitalisation and autonomous driving projects.

A 49 per cent stake in Rimac would no doubt pay dividends in these projects, especially so in respect to VW’s electrification efforts with Rimac already being dubbed as Europe’s answer to Tesla.

“Our powertrain systems are the highest power density, and the highest energy density,” Rimac CEO Mate Rimac told Car.

“If you need to have as much power in as little space as possible, you come to us.”

As it turns out, Porsche already has a 15.5 per cent share in the hi-po EV brand which currently employs more than 600 people, all specialists in electromobility, battery development and performance electronics.

If the deal proceeds, Rimac would not only obtain the Bugatti name, but all remaining stock and facilities as well, with Car loosely valuing the legendary performance marque at around €500 million ($A810,162,248) in today’s turbulent market.

By comparison, Rimac is said to now be worth “north of £500m” ($A886,722,023).

The same article also speculates that Lamborghini, Seat, Ital Design, Bentley and Ducati could also be on the chopping block, however the shedding of any of these marques would likely be a far more involved process than that of the Porsche-Rimac-Bugatti deal.