Bugatti Announces New Hypersports Car

In 2004, Bugatti transformed the world of automotive performance and luxury with a 1,001 hp hypersports car: the Veyron. The first road car with more than 1,000 hp was succeeded in 2016 by another engineering feat so ambitious it reset all expectations of performance, the world’s first 1,500 hp car: the Chiron.

At the heart of these cars was the world’s most advanced automotive engine: an 8.0-liter quad-turbo W16. Now, 20 years after Bugatti invented the hypersports car, it redefines the concept completely with an entirely new powertrain and platform. The company unveiled the brand new Bugatti Tourbillon.

“The development of the Bugatti Tourbillon was guided at every step by the 115 years of Bugatti history and the words of Ettore Bugatti himself. His mantras ‘If comparable it is no longer Bugatti’ and ‘Nothing is too beautiful’ was a guiding path for me personally, as well as the design and engineering teams looking to create the next exciting era in the Bugatti hypersports car story,“ said Mate Rimac, CEO of Bugatti. “Beauty, performance, and luxury formed the blueprint for the Tourbillon; a car that was more elegant, more emotive, and more luxurious than anything before it. And just like those icons of the past, it wouldn’t be simply for the present, or even for the future, but Pour l’éternité – for eternity.”

As the first Bugatti in more than 20 years not powered by the iconic W16 engine, the tradition of naming core models after legendary Bugatti racing drivers of the past is no longer applied. Instead, the name Tourbillon was chosen as the perfect encapsulation of this car’s character. A French word, and a subtle reference to Bugatti’s French heritage and home in Molsheim, the tourbillon is a watchmaking invention of a Swiss-born genius living in France in 1801. It helps counteract the effects of gravity on a watch to ensure more consistent time-keeping. And over 200 years later it is still revered as the pinnacle of watchmaking.

This next-generation Bugatti hypersports car is powered by an all-new 8.3-liter V16 engine – engineered with the help of Cosworth – paired with a front e-Axle with two electric motors and one electric motor mounted at the rear axle. In total, the Tourbillon produces 1,800 hp with 1,000 from the combustion engine itself and 800 hp from the electric motors. Constructed from lightweight materials, the engine weighs just 252 kg. The electric motors are powered by a 25 kWh oil-cooled 800V battery housed in the central tunnel and behind the passengers. The electric powertrain, with the electric motors spinning up to 24,000 RPM and a fully integrated dual silicon-carbide inverter, is amongst the most power-dense in the world power, throttle response, and torque-fill are priorities for the electric powertrain, the relatively large energy content of 25 kWh allows for a very usable all-electric range of more than 60 km / 37 miles.

The Bugatti Tourbillon now enters its testing phase, with prototypes already on the road in anticipation of customer deliveries in 2026. A total of 250 examples will be built, with a starting price of €3.8 million net. Hand assembly will take place at the Bugatti Atelier in Molsheim, following the final W16-powered Bugatti models, Bolide and W16 Mistral.