How and why Bugatti will move to the Croatian Rimac
By the end of the year, the Bugatti-Rimac joint venture on electric hypercars will be born, divided between Rimac (55%) and Porsche (45%). All the details of the agreement
Bugatti, the French company of the Volkswagen group known for sports cars, will come under the control of Rimac Automobili, a Croatian company that produces high-performance electric vehicles.
WHAT THE AGREEMENT PROVIDES FOR
The agreement,already anticipated , was announced yesterday. And it provides for the formation – in the fourth quarter of 2021, after the approvals of the antitrust authorities – of a joint venture called Bugatti-Rimac: it will be based in Zagreb, Croatia, and will be 55 percent owned by Rimac; 45 percent will go to Porsche, the German luxury car brand of the Volkswagen group.
At the helm of the new company will be Mate Rimac, former CEO of Rimac.
THE PORSCHE COMMENT
Oliver Blume, CEO of Porsche, spoke of the Bugatti-Rimac joint venture as a combination of “Bugatti's solid expertise in the hypercar sector with Rimac's extraordinary innovative strength in the promising field of electric mobility”.
MODELS IN PRODUCTION
Bugatti-Rimac will initially produce two models of hypercars: the Bugatti Chiron and the Rimac Nevera (fully electric). Porsche has specified that the Bugatti cars will continue to be produced at the plant in Molsheim, France.
Between Molsheim and Zagreb, Bugatti-Rimac will have a total of 430 employees.
WHAT PORSCHE DOES IN BUGATTI
Last March Porsche decided to raise its stake in Rimac from 15 to 24 percent, for a sum of 70 million euros. It had bought a 10 percent stake in 2018, bringing it to around 15 percent the following year.
In a statement, Porsche Chief Financial Officer Lutz Meschke said Rimac is well positioned to "become a premium supplier to Porsche and other manufacturers in the high-tech segment."
Bloomberg writes that the deal between Porsche and Rimac is part of the broader challenge launched by the European auto industry to American Tesla, currently the dominant company in the electric mobility sector.
VALUE AND AMBITIONS OF RIMAC
Rimac has a market value of 795 million euros and could present an initial public offering in 2022, aiming for a valuation of around 5 billion euros.
In addition to Porsche, South Korean car companies Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors and the Chinese battery manufacturer Camel Group have also invested in Rimac.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/smartcity/bugatti-rimac-joint-venture-auto-elettriche/ on Tue, 06 Jul 2021 10:41:32 +0000.