Mate Rimac's Electro Athlete Nevera is stronger than the Chiron. As Bugatti boss, he wants to increase its performance and top speed and continues to rely on combustion engines.
While car manufacturers are removing more and more of their twelve- and eight-cylinder engines from the range, the only 16-cylinder series-produced passenger car engine seems to have a future: the successor to the current Bugatti Chiron is also getting powerful gasoline -combustion engine. The new Bugatti boss Mate Rimac has now emphasized this in a video.
Mate Rimac wants even more performance
The Croatian inventor and entrepreneur Mate Rimac founded Rimac Automobili in 2009 and is launching the electric hypercar Nevera with 1,900 hp. More than 52 percent of the automaker still belong to Mate Rimac itself, 24 percent are in the hands of Porsche AG. Conversely, since November 2, 2021, 55 percent of Bugatti has belonged to Rimac, and the other 45 percent to Porsche. As part of this deal, Mate Rimac got the Bugatti executive chair. Anyone who now thought that Bugatti only had a future as an equipment variant for the electric Rimac super sports car Nevera can relax: Bugatti is staying in Molsheim and the manufactory production there delivers a quality that impresses Mate Rimac on the one hand, but he also does want to improve further.
Clear commitment to the combustion engine
In the video, Mate Rimac emphasizes his passion for Bugatti - he remembers the joy when he saw the first Veyron in the VW Forum Berlin in 2002 and could hardly imagine that the VW -Engineers succeed in the implementation of a mega-performant production super sports car. Mate Rimac shares the opinion that VW has achieved incredible things with the construction of the Bugatti Veyron and its successor Chiron with many experts and fans. Rimac respects this legacy – and wants to develop it further. In the meantime, Rimac has made it clear in various interviews that he primarily constructs electric cars because he likes their performance and thus their high torque, even when stationary. He has no ideological fears of contact with combustion engines.,
"We are further developing the combustion engine: There is a future for combustion engines at Bugatti." clarifies Mate Rimac. He adds that he was only ever satisfied with the best in order to inspire future generations.
Possibly faster than 500 km/h
It is not yet known when a successor to the Bugatti Chiron, which has been built since 2016, will come. In the Super Sport version, the Chiron's 16-cylinder engine delivers 1,600 hp, giving it a top speed of 490 km/h. Since Mate Rimac wants to further improve the performance of the Bugatti models, a Chiron successor will probably have more than 1.700 hp and then probably creates a top speed of over 500 km/h - while low acceleration times are more possible with electric motors, high top speeds, especially over longer distances, remain a domain of combustion engine cars.
Conclusion
Mate Rimac knows about Bugatti's valuable legacy – both the Veyron and the Chiron are more engineering works of art than hard-headed mechanical constructions. Now electric pioneer Mate Rimac is the boss of Bugatti – which petrolheads need not worry about: Rimac has announced a combustion engine for the next Bugatti generation.
Mate Rimac would like to make the new Bugatti even more powerful than the current Chiron - this means a top speed of over 500 km/h is possible. Apparently, Rimac does not want to leave the top speed field to small brands like Koenigsegg from Sweden or tuners like Hennessy from Texas without a fight.
When a new Bugatti generation will come and whether it will actually work with a 16-cylinder engine again - or with a hybrid drive, for which a smaller combustion engine might even be sufficient, is not yet known.
