Rimac And Bugatti Have Officially Joined Forces, And Porsche Is Involved

Rimac’s rumoured purchase of Bugatti hasn’t come to pass. What’s actually happened, though, is arguably more interesting.

Both brands have joined forces to create a new company called Bugatti Rimac d.o.o, which will be run by Rimac founder and CEO Mate Rimac and headquartered in Croatia. The two will be “combining their expertise in design, innovation and technology” to aid the development of future cars, but the newly created entity won’t be responsible for making them.

The Bugatti and Rimac brands will continue to operate independently while absorbing all the glorious knowledge unlocked by the joint venture. Porsche will own 45 per cent of the latter, with the newly-formed Rimac Group taking a 55 per cent controlling stake.

The Rimac Group is the new umbrella company for the two sides of the Croatian endeavour, now formerly split as Rimac Technology and another as-yet-unnamed firm to take care of building bonkers hypercars like the 1888bhp Nevera. Ownership of the group is divided between Mate Rimac (37 per cent), Porsche (24 per cent), Hyundai (12 per cent) and various other investors (27 per cent).

As for Bugatti Rimac, it’ll begin trading from the fourth quarter of 2021, taking up its permanent residence in the £170 million Rimac Campus in Kerestinec when its opens in 2023.

All of this seems a shrewd move for the 110-year-old Bugatti brand, which needs to future-proof itself and just damn impressive for Rimac. This is a company that was run from Mate’s garage a mere 10 years ago before a meteoric rise. Its advances in EV powertrain tech have caused major manufacturers to sit up and take notice, with many wanting a slice of the electrified pie.
Speaking about the new company, Mate Rimac said:

“This is a truly exciting moment in the short, yet rapidly expanding history of Rimac Automobili. We have gone through so much in such a short space of time, but this new venture takes things to a completely new level. Rimac and Bugatti are a perfect match in terms of what we each bring to the table.”