Who Owns Bugatti? You May Be Surprised That It’s a Croatian Billionaire.
In all of automobile land, Bugatti cars may be the most exclusive. The company’s 1,578-hp cars sell for nearly $6 million each and look like nothing else on the road. The company employs a weird W16 engine layout, owns almost every top-speed record, and its models are show-stoppers, even among other supercars. However, as Bugatti studies for an all-electric future, its ownership has changed, and a Croatian engineer now owns a majority percentage of the company.
Who is the real owner of Bugatti?
As is often the case with multinational companies, the ownership of Bugatti will take a bit to explain. In the 1990s, Volkswagen Group rescued Bugatti and helped build the company’s first hypercar, the Veyron EB 16.4, in 2005. However, in July 2021, Volkswagen sold the company to a consortium called Rimac Automobili, a joint venture between Croatian supercar manufacturer Rimac and Porsche.
According to the Independent newspaper, Rimac owns 55% of the company. Porsche now owns the remaining 45% of Bugatti. However, and this is where the deal gets complicated, Porsche also owns 24% of Rimac. Hyundai owns 12%, and company founder Mate Rimac owns 37%. Investors own the final 27% of Rimac. In some ways, Porsche now controls more than 50% of Bugatti.
Does Elon Musk own Bugatti?
Many think Elon Musk owns Bugatti. However, he’s too busy with Tesla, Twitter (currently X), and Space X to also own a weird exotic car company.
However, Mate Rimac is a fascinating entrepreneur of his own. According to a fascinating profile in The Guardian, when Rimac was 17, he’d already earned two patents. After racing a rusty BMW locally, he converted it to electricity. Then, a member of the royal family of Abu Dhabi asked him to build a hypercar EV, which he did. That car later made a splash at the 2011 Frankfurt Auto Show.
What is the Rimac Group, and what does it make?
Rimac went on to start Rimac Group, which now builds the quickest production car in the world. We’re not surprised if you’ve never heard of it in the U.S. The cars aren’t sold here yet, but fans of the British car TV show Top Gear cringed when Richard Hammond crashed a $1 million Rimac Concept on the show.
Rimac’s cars are ludicrously quick, expensive, and premium vehicles. Sound Familiar? In the last decade, Rimac has built the company up from a few employees to 1,600. While Rimac’s Nevara cars sell for $2.2 million, good luck getting one. Rimac limited production to 150 units. However, Rimac’s technology is finding its way into many other cars, like Porsches.
The Rimac Nevera, though, makes 1,887 horsepower and has a sub-2.0-second zero to 60 mph time. It also has a 205-mile range.
