Founding father of the Rimac electric hypercar brand and CEO of Bugatti, Mate Rimac, has said the long run of high-end supercars shouldn’t be electric, with petrol-powered vehicles to stay in high demand at the same time as mainstream models turn out to be increasingly electric.
Talking to CNBC, the Rimac founder and Bugatti Rimac CEO suggested exotic supercars are entering a “Swiss watch phase”, where high-net-worth buyers are shunning the most recent tech for more conventional mechanical and handcrafted models.
“For normal cars, normal people, the overwhelming majority can be electric, [but] the upper segment, like sports cars and upwards, are going to remain combustion for a really very long time, exactly like watches,” Mr Rimac told CNBC.
“Only like five per cent of watches are made in Switzerland, but that’s where 90 per cent of profits are made. An Apple Watch or any type of smartwatch can accomplish that many more things, but nobody pays $200,000 for it.”
Mockingly, Mr Rimac founded Rimac Automobili, an electric-only hypercar company, in 2009, with its first production model – the Rimac Concept One – one in all the fastest electric vehicles (EVs) on the earth on the time.
It was followed by the C_Two concept in 2018, which became the production-ready Nevera in 2021. The Nevera went on to set a lot of EV performance records, including a production-EV top-speed record of 412km/h, and was priced at around €2 million (A$3.24 million).
In 2021, Rimac Automobili and Porsche formed the Bugatti Rimac three way partnership, bringing together Rimac and the historic Bugatti brand – famous for making a number of the fastest internal-combustion-powered cars on the earth.
The Veyron, introduced in 2005, spawned the Super Sport that reached 431km/h in 2010, while the Chiron, introduced in 2016, saw the Super Sport 300+ reach 490.484km/h in 2019.
Yet Mr Rimac has no plans for a battery-electric Bugatti to follow the Chiron which, just like the Veyron, used a quad-turbocharged 16-cylinder petrol engine configured in overlapping vees to form a ‘W16’.
As a substitute, the Chiron’s successor, the Tourbillon, will use a hybrid powertrain, combining an 8.3-litre V16 petrol engine making 746kW/900Nm with a further 597kW kick from a trio of electrical motors for a complete system output of 1343kW.
“It’s type of ironic that I’m now making the world’s biggest combustion engine,” Mr Rimac said.
“You have got the crazy situation now at our facility in Croatia. On the identical production line, you may have the world’s strongest electric automobile being built right next to the world’s biggest combustion engine. Life is strange sometimes.”
The comments come only months after iconic Italian supercar maker and Formula 1 mainstay Ferrari launched its first EV, the Luce.
While garnering a raft of criticism on social media, the primary production example sold at auction in america (US) earlier this month for $US40 million (A$55.6 million) at RM Sotheby’s in California.
In line with Ferrari Australasia, the Luce factory allocation for Australia and Latest Zealand has also sold out, although president Michele Comelli didn’t disclose the variety of cars coming to either country.
Yet Ferrari sold 13,640 vehicles globally in 2025, significantly greater than the limited production run of 250 Bugatti Tourbillons, priced from €3.8 million (A$6.2 million) before taxes. Mr Rimac said he intends annual Bugatti production to never exceed “low three-digit numbers”.
Similarly, while Rimac doesn’t commonly disclose sales numbers, it is also a low-volume brand. Just over 50 Neveras had been delivered as of May 2024 from a planned production run of as much as 150, while only eight Concept One road cars were produced.
Mr Rimac told CNBC wealthy customers desire a vehicle reflecting their very own tastes, with an increase in customisation.
“For these clients, they need something that’s really theirs, that’s connected with them,” he said. “It tells their story, their personality, their preferences, not similar to a automobile. It’s a story behind it.”
Brands are also recognising this, corresponding to Porsche through its Sonderwunsch (special request) department, Maserati via its Fuoriserie (custom-made) and Mercedes-Benz with its Manufaktur options.
“What I would like to do is make the world’s best cars, probably the most exciting cars on the earth, and have the world’s most profitable automobile company on a percentage basis,” Mr Rimac said.
“You possibly can get a automobile that’s faster than any performance automobile from 10 years ago for like $50,000 from China. Performance is admittedly becoming secondary. It’s more about what I call the celebration of human skills. While you take a look at these cars, you see the quantity of ingenuity and art and wonder.”
This Article First Appeared At www.carexpert.com.au
