He Doesn’t Sound Sure On What It Will Be
Under the leadership of Stephan Winkelmann, Bugatti is doing well. The company released the Chiron Sport and has had several special editions. It also revealed the La Voiture Noire at the Geneva Motor show, which was a one-off and extremely expensive. So, things are going well. According to the CEO, the company is now ready for another model.
In an interview with CarAdvice, Winkelmann said exactly that. He said the company is looking at the options, and he didn’t sound too sure of where that process would lead.
We need to see if this is something we can achieve, in terms of investments and development costs, which is not an easy task. You have to increase your team, your production and within the VW Group, you have to see what their highest priority is, so we are constantly trying our best to be in that mix.
Winkelmann said Bugatti would not share platforms with other brands. Instead, he said it would be a stand-alone model. The move to add another model to the Bugatti lineup brings up the question of whether or not it would be an electric, gasoline-powered, or some kind of hybrid.
Winkelmann expressed interest in a hybrid model but said the difficulty there was weight. However, he said the company is so good at managing weight. “What we offer the VW Group is the expertise of lightweight materials because we are so extreme in the development of our own car.”
If Bugatti were to add a new model and sell more vehicles overall, Winkelmann said it would need to expand the factory in Molsheim. He said Bugatti would not build cars anywhere else. “That’s our heritage and part of the ownership experience is to take delivery at the Chateau.”
