Bugatti’s next hypercar to succeed the Chiron will debut in 2024 before launching in 2026, the automaker confirmed on Thursday while announcing the retirement of design chief Achim Anscheidt.
Anscheidt has led Bugatti design for the last 19 years and the new hypercar, whose design has been signed off, was his final task.
He planned to resign three years ago, but Mate Rimac, the CEO of the Bugatti Rimac partnership, convinced him to stay on and help finalize the design of the Chiron successor.
Anscheidt’s own successor has been confirmed by Bugatti as Frank Hey, the brand’s deputy design chief. He’s been at Bugatti since 2008 and will still work with Anscheidt, who will play an advisory role, to lay the groundwork for Bugatti design through to the end of the decade.
“Achim’s understanding of the Bugatti identity, handed down from our founder Ettore and in the beautiful designs of his son Jean, is unrivalled, and his last commitment to Bugatti was to finalize the design of our next-generation hyper sports car,” Rimac said in a statement. “Without saying too much, it’s Achim’s masterpiece and the most beautiful and authentic evolution of Bugatti I could have imagined.”
Achim Anscheidt
Bugatti hasn’t said much about its Chiron successor, but Rimac said in 2022 the car would be a hybrid and not an electric hypercar. That caught many by surprise, considering Rimac founded EV technology company Rimac Group.
In an interview with Auto Express published that year, Rimac revealed that his technology company started developing the engine for the Chiron successor around 2020, when he was first in talks with Volkswagen Group about taking control of Bugatti and forming the Bugatti Rimac partnership.
The need for a new engine was clear as Bugatti was planning to phase out its famous quad-turbocharged 8.0-liter W-16, which it is now doing with the Chiron-based Mistral roadster, and Rimac was adamant he wanted the Chiron successor to be a hybrid.
In his interview with Auto Express, Rimac said Bugatti was planning an electric crossover as the successor to the Chiron, and that he had to convince senior management that a hybrid hypercar was the way to go.
The hybrid route will help differentiate future Bugattis from Rimac’s electric hypercars. According to Rimac, Bugattis will also continue to focus on craftsmanship, analog dials, and beautiful design, while Rimacs will continue down the more modern route of injecting more technology like autonomous modes for drifting or running hot laps.
