Porsche has sold its remaining stake in Bugatti, severing the French hypercar marque's final ownership link with the Volkswagen Group after more than two decades. The German sports car manufacturer confirmed the disposal on 9 September, stating that it would receive proceeds of approximately €1 billion from the transaction.
The buyer is Rimac, the Croatian electric hypercar specialist that first acquired a controlling interest in Bugatti around five years ago. Mate Rimac, the company's 38-year-old founder, was installed as chief executive at the time, but Porsche retained a significant minority shareholding that kept Bugatti tethered to the wider Volkswagen Group. That arrangement has now been dissolved, leaving Rimac firmly in charge of Bugatti's future.
The sale marks the end of a relationship that began when Volkswagen acquired the historic Bugatti name and revived it as a producer of extreme, low-volume hypercars. Under VW ownership, Bugatti established itself at the very top of the automotive market with the Veyron and its successor, the Chiron, both powered by a distinctive W16 engine. The brand became a showcase for engineering ambition rather than a volume business, and its cars routinely carried seven-figure price tags.
For Rimac, full control removes the last layer of corporate oversight from a company already closely associated with its founder's vision. The Croatian firm has built its reputation on electric performance, and its stewardship of Bugatti is expected to shape how the marque approaches electrification while preserving the exclusivity that defines it. Porsche's exit simplifies that task, giving Rimac a free hand in deciding how Bugatti's next generation of models is developed and positioned.
The change of ownership may have consequences beyond the boardroom. Bugatti has long been protective of its components, refusing to supply many parts to independent or unapproved repairers. That policy has already complicated life for owners and specialists who work outside the official network, and it could become more restrictive still if future Bugatti models rely on more bespoke, custom-made components rather than shared group parts.
One prominent example illustrates the stakes. British repairer and YouTuber Mat Armstrong, who has documented the restoration of two Bugatti Veyrons, discovered during work on his first car that some components were shared with far cheaper Volkswagen Group models. The hydraulic pressure accumulator for the gearbox, for instance, was also used in the Volkswagen Lupo. Such parts are considerably less expensive than equivalents ordered directly from Bugatti, and their availability has helped independent specialists keep ageing hypercars on the road.
With Porsche no longer involved, that pipeline of shared components is less certain. Bugatti has not signalled any immediate change to its parts policy, and Armstrong has previously shown a knack for finding solutions to such obstacles, not least during his Chiron project. Even so, the removal of the Volkswagen Group connection narrows the routes through which non-franchised repairers can source what they need.
The transaction also represents a notable piece of portfolio management for Porsche, which has been reviewing its holdings amid a broader shift in the automotive industry towards electrification and software-driven vehicles. A €1 billion return from a minority stake in a niche hypercar maker is a substantial sum, and it frees the company to concentrate resources on its own model range and technology programmes.
For Bugatti, the question now is what full Rimac ownership means in practice. The marque's customers expect rarity, performance and impeccable engineering, and its new owner has built a business on exactly those qualities. Whether that translates into a more open approach to parts supply, or a more closed one, remains to be seen. What is clear is that Bugatti's long association with the Volkswagen Group has ended, and the brand's next chapter will be written in Croatia rather than Germany.