VW’s $1.85 Million Bugatti Escapes Cuts as Successor Eyed
Volkswagen AG wants to make sure this year isn’t the last chance to get a new Bugatti.
There are fewer than 20 left of the VW unit’s Veyron, a limited production line of 450 Bugatti cars that start at 1.46 million euros ($1.85 million). Now VW is testing at least three different concepts for a successor, according two people familiar with the Wolfsburg, Germany-based carmaker’s plans, who asked not to be identified before an official announcement.
VW is pumping cash into its most exclusive marque even as it plans cutbacks for its more terrestrial brands. The Veyron set industry records not just for speed, but also for losing money, according to estimates from Max Warburton, a Singapore-based analyst for Sanford Bernstein Ltd. The cost of developing the Veyron, introduced in 2005, means VW may lose 4.6 million euros per vehicle over its life cycle, Warburton said.
“I have long struggled to understand the logic of expending this much time and
The new Bugatti will vie for the world’s most affluent customers with the likes of Italy’s Pagani Automobili SpA, McLaren Automotive Ltd.’s street cars and the U. S.-built Hennessey Venom GT. VW will display a special-edition Veyron at the Paris Motor Show starting this week.
Stronger Engine
The next generation will be lighter and, if tests are successful, could feature an engine as much as 25 percent stronger than the 1,200-horsepower motor of the current model’s most powerful version, according to the people briefed on the plans. At least one of VW’s concepts includes an electric motor to boost power and lower emissions, the people said.
Manuela Hoehne, a spokeswoman for Bugatti, said the company will give an outlook on a new model next year. She declined to comment in detail on the concept plans. VW design chief Walter de Silva told BBC’s TopGear the new model would
be unveiled at the end of next year or early 2016 and will be “art.”Meanwhile, thousands of workers rallied last week at the group’s largest factory and expressed concern that the company is planning to cut costs for its mass-market brands. The assembly lines in industrial Wolfsburg are 500 kilometers (311 miles) north of where Veyrons are custom built in the picturesque Alsace town of Molsheim, France. The German city created to produce the original Beetle is where Volkswagen makes the Golf hatchback, the Tiguan small SUV and the Touran minivan, bread-and-butter vehicles for the middle class.
Inevitable Cutbacks
VW Chief Executive Officer Martin Winterkorn caused a stir in Wolfsburg in July when he told his top brass that cutbacks are inevitable to make the company’s namesake passenger-car brand more profitable. The unit’s margins were 2.1 percent in the first half, and Winterkorn wants it to reach 6 percent. He set a target of boosting earnings by 5 billion euros by 2017.
The Audi luxury unit said two weeks later it would also need to keep an eye on costs. It didn’t set a specific target.
VW’s premium-car brands, including Audi and Porsche, contributed about two-thirds of the group’s first-half operating profit of 6.19 billion euros. That’s one reason the company cites for investing in Bugatti: the ultra-high-end car shows people who might want to buy its other luxury brands what VW is capable of doing.
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