Bugatti unveils a new $4.3 million car: What does the price include?

Three years ago, when Bugatti's control shifted to Rimac, everyone expected the next project of the exotic sports car manufacturer to be electric. That's Rimac's specialty, that's the trend, and it's likely what the modern-day Veyron Bugatti Genius would have done if he were alive today.

But Rimac refused to take its prophecy and make it a Bugatti. "Bugatti is not about doing things the easy way. Bugatti is about doing things the hard way, but the right way. I felt that a gasoline engine is still the right thing for her. And to be as emotional as possible, it also needed an atmospheric engine, without turbochargers," he said after the launch.

And it's impossible to be truly emotional without historical references in design: Two such are integrated into the Turbine, with split windows in front and behind, reminiscent of the stunning 1936 Bugatti 57 Atlantic.

The Turbine is named after a delicate mechanism invented in 1795 to improve the accuracy of mechanical watches. It preserves the basic structure of the Veyron's design that preceded it and marked Bugatti's resurrection in the modern age, after being debilitated by the death of its founder in 1947. The same principles, but updated: a non-turbo gasoline engine, but with 8,300 horsepower instead of 8,000, still with 16 cylinders but in a V configuration instead of W. Its power reaches 1,000 PS, as the Veyron had, but this time with two electric motors adding to the total power to 1,800 PS.

There's also a 25 kWh battery that allows electric-only driving for up to 60 km, a small concession to environmental concerns, which should enable the driver with a gentle foot to perform his daily commute to and from the office in electric mode, without bothering him with fast charging stations on long and primarily fast trips.

The Veyron, a personal project of Ferdinand Piech, who led Volkswagen's team at the time and poured amounts that have never been returned, was 20 years ago the first mass-produced car with a top speed of over 400 km/h, 407 to be precise, which necessitated the development of special tires and more. The Turbine raises the bar even further, to 445 km/h, but with a gasoline engine. The standard maximum speed stands at 380 km/h, but the car owner will also have a special key that, when used, releases an additional 65 km/h, which can override other drivers in the car. Anyway, the electric Rimac prophecy is indeed slower by 5 km/h at its top speed, but faster in every acceleration.

One of the most striking elements of the car can only be seen by the driver: as the industry rushes to emotionless digital dashboards, the Turbine gets one that's entirely analog, consisting of three round dials, the largest of which for speed is in the center. The dial is built so that when turned, the initials EB, the acronym for Bugatti Turbine, remain fixed in place and do not rotate with it.

How much does the pleasure cost? The last Chiron models were priced at $3.3 million. The Turbine will cost $4.3 million for the first customers who will receive it in 2026. As a car intended to serve as an investment no less than a source of enjoyment on the road for the few who can afford it, Bugatti also ensured to reduce the volume of production, from 500 Veyron cars produced since 2015, to only 250 that will be built from the Turbine.