Porsche and Rimac have agreed to set up a joint venture that incorporates Bugatti.
Porsche chief Oliver Blume and Mate Rimac have signed the corresponding agreements and announced the name of the new hypercar manufacturer: Bugatti-Rimac.
The joint venture will be based in Zagreb, Croatia, and is scheduled to be established in the fourth quarter of 2021. This is subject to the prior approval of antitrust authorities in several countries.
Rimac will hold a 55% share in the JV while Porsche will have 45%.
Porsche also holds a 24% share in Rimac directly.
Bugatti will be brought into the joint venture by current owner Volkswagen. The shares will then be transferred to Porsche.
Blume said: “We are combining Bugatti’s strong expertise in the hypercar business with Rimac’s tremendous innovative strength in the highly promising field of electric mobility.”
The Bugatti and Rimac brands will initially produce two hypercar models: the Chiron and the all-electric Nevera.
Bugatti Automobiles will continue to exist in the new joint venture and all Bugatti models will still be produced at the factory in Molsheim, France.
“This joint venture is the provisional culmination of a strategic chain of investments,” said Porsche finance chief Lutz Meschke. “We already purchased the first shares in Rimac in 2018 and have successively increased our shareholding since then. We established a close relationship with Mate and his extremely innovative team very early on. We are now benefiting from that. Thanks to its know-how, Rimac will now help us to successfully lead an emotive and important brand into the future.”
Blume and Meschke will become members of the supervisory board at Bugatti-Rimac while Mate Rimac will be CEO.
The joint venture will have approximately 430 employees – around 300 in Zagreb and 130 in Molsheim.