Bugatti electric car and SUV off the cards, despite prior claims

The CEO of French hypercar maker Bugatti – now owned by Croatian electric hypercar maker Rimac, and Volkswagen Group sports-car brand Porsche – has gone back on previous claims that an electric car and SUV were in the brand’s plans.

In July 2021, recently-appointed Bugatti CEO Mate Rimac – who took the helm after his Rimac company bought its stake in Bugatti – told Autocar there would be an electric Bugatti within a decade, set to be sold alongside petrol-powered models.

Less than a month later, the Croatian said an SUV was on the radar for Bugatti in an interview with Motor Trend.

However, in an interview with German publication Automobilwoche last week, Mr Rimac ruled out both electric cars and SUVs for the time being – going against the trend set by a number of luxury supercar brands.

“A purely electric version is not included in our 10-year plan for Bugatti,” Mr Rimac told Automobilwoche. “There will also be no SUV.”

With no electric models in the pipeline until 2032, Bugatti will have just three years to launch a zero-emissions car before the European Union's planned ban on new petrol and diesel vehicle sales takes effect in 2035.

Mr Rimac has previously said the Bugatti Chiron’s successor will be fitted with a high-power petrol engine, assisted by hybrid technology to meet the stringent Euro 7 emissions regulations due to come into force in 2025.

Bugatti’s decision not to produce an SUV is a juxtaposition to most other European supercar companies, almost all of which have cashed in on the booming market.

Iconic Italian marque Ferrari said “no way” to an SUV in 2016 – yet six years later it revealed its first SUV, the V12-engined Purosangue.

British firm McLaren had also vowed to never build an SUV, until last month when the company’s new CEO, Michael Leiters, said a high-riding model is on the cards.

In June, Italian performance-car firm Lamborghini reported it had built its 20,000th Urus SUV since the model's launch in 2018 – becoming the brand’s fastest-selling model and helping to double its annual production output.

Mate Rimac’s eponymous electric hypercar brand – Rimac – purchased a 55 per cent stake in Bugatti last year, with the remaining 45 per cent held by Porsche.

Rimac has continued to exclusively produce electric vehicles, including the Nevera – the world’s fastest-accelerating production car with a claimed 1.97-second 0-100km/h time, or 2.1 seconds as tested.