Ever since its rebirth under Volkswagen, the Bugatti brand has been defined by the vast, 16-cylinder engines featured in its cars. We know that its next model will make the switch from the old quad-turbocharged W16 to a newly-developed, naturally aspirated V16. Now, its CEO, Mate Rimac, has reaffirmed his ambition to keep that engine in the company’s cars for as long as possible, floating some unorthodox solutions for making it happen.
Rimac, the CEO of the joint venture between Bugatti and his eponymous electric hypercar manufacturer, was speaking at the Financial Times’ recent Future of the Car summit in London, where he also revealed that he was considering a petrol-powered Rimac in the face of faltering EV hypercar demand. Per Autocar, though, he was much more certain on what will power Bugattis for the foreseeable: petrol, or at least a synthetic alternative to it.
This is despite plans in the European Union to ban combustion-powered cars from 2035 a bit of legislation that Rimac reckons has been misinterpreted: “I don’t see any reason not to make them beyond 2035, we have developed a completely new engine and we want to use that engine for a while. I read the regulations and I don’t see a reason why it would be impossible – the headlines say combustion-engined cars will be banned from 2035, but you read the fine print and it doesn’t say that anywhere – you can still build them, but there might be some penalties.”
Bugatti Chiron Super Sport
There is still the question of synthetic fuels, too, which several lower-volume manufacturers are investigating, and which may end up exempt from the EU’s 2035 ban. Rimac went as far as to suggest that Bugatti owners could have “beautiful Bugatti fuel stations” designed for their homes, dispensing e-fuels at their leisure.
Bugatti has confirmed a June unveiling for its new V16-powered car, which will be only the third mainline model from the company’s modern incarnation, after 2005’s Veyron and 2016’s Chiron. It seems that if Rimac gets his way, it certainly won’t be the last thing we see the wild, metre-long engine in.
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