Bugatti ponders Suv-like model
BUGATTI IS CLOSER than ever to justifying a second model line, boss Stephan Winkelmann revealed at the Paris motor show.
Citing the success of the £4.5 million Bugatti Divo — a limited-to-40-examples Chiron tuned for maximum track performance, which sold out immediately — Winkelmann said: “What’s becoming clearer is that the enthusiasm is there to grow the brand.
“Bugatti has never focused a car so much around dynamics, but the response to the Divo has been tremendous. Each car has been sold to an existing Chiron customer and the allocation has gone immediately. That shows the passion for this brand.
“That shows me that we are ready to do more. In terms of the amount of people we have who love the brand, I feel we have proved a lot. Today, we have many ideas, but all of them require work, and not all of them will succeed. We are still working on ideas.”
Winkelmann didn’t discuss specifics of what kind of car a second Bugatti model might be, but sources have suggested that the firm remains unconvinced that the five-door fastback design once mooted with the 2009 Galibier concept would prove popular enough.
Instead, a high-riding Suv-inspired design is said to be gaining favour among senior decision makers at the firm. Before leaving Lamborghini, Winkelmann led plans for the launch of the Urus SUV, which arrived earlier this year and is tipped to be a sales success.
However, a Bugatti version of that car would need to justify a price at least twice that of the Lamborghini (which starts from £159,000), and deliver even greater performance.
Winkelmann said any second Bugatti model would be less limited and exclusive than the Chiron, with a production run that could extend to 1000 models.
The priority at Bugatti remains making a success of the Chiron so that it can be replaced to “continue the line” that started with Veyron, said Winkelmann. The second model would also clearly leave the Chiron as the “halo car”, he said, because Bugatti “does not need another star in the sky”.