If you’ve been worried about the future of Bugatti with Mate Rimac, CEO-founder of boutique electric hypercar maker Rimac Automobili at the helm, here’s good enough reason to put those doubts to rest. Rimac has doubled down on the French company’s commitment to internal combustion by suggesting that Bugatti could go as far as provide free private fueling stations at the residences of its customers. Not just any fueling station either, considering the Bugatti Chiron has an 11mpg combined EPA fuel efficiency estimate. Bugatti is committing to a sustainable future for its internal combustion-powered vehicles with a synthetic fueling station.
Mate Rimac has put the idea out there at a recent Financial Times Future of the Car Summit in London in response to questions about Bugatti continuing to manufacture internal combustion vehicles in the future. Given the European Union’s sales ban on internal combustion cars past 2035, it’s certainly a pertinent question. However, exclusions to the sales ban have already been made for cars running synthetic fuels, or eFuel, which is produced from carbon dioxide and water using renewable wind energy — making it a near-net CO2-neutral fuel in use.
Porsche, famously, has been working on a plan to mass produce synthetic fuel for use in its motorsport endeavors, and further, in its road cars. The company has set up a pilot eFuel plant in Chile in December 2022, where it plans to make 14.5 million gallons of synthetic fuel by 2025, scaling up to 145 million gallons by 2027. Porsche owns 45 percent of Bugatti Rimac, which gives an inkling of where Mate Rimac may have got the idea from.
Considering the next Bugatti hypercar is being unveiled on June 20th, powered by an all-new naturally-aspirated V16 engine that will likely see use in Bugatti vehicles for decades to come, it’s in everyone’s best interests if the sustainable fuel angle works out. After all, who wouldn’t to have the world’s best hypercar, and be near carbon-neutral when driving it? Extra icing could just be the Bugatti synthetic fuel filling station, at the Bugatti by Binghatti ultra-luxe residences coming up in Dubai.
