Bilal Hydrie, president and CEO of Inclusive Energy based in Canada, has worked hard to get where he is. One of the highlights along the way is certainly the achievement of being an owner of one of the 500 standard 1,500 horsepower Bugatti Chirons to ever be made. It’s possibly made even more special by the fact that Bilal is an immigrant from Pakistan, and has had Bugatti ownership as the ultimate dream in his journey for years. This is the story of how he came to be a Bugatti Chiron owner, as told to the Wall Street Journal.
Bilal Hydrie has owned Ferraris and Lamborghinis previously. Still, when he approached the same company he buys all his cars from, Grand Touring Automobiles in Toronto, to help him get an allocation, all they could say was that they would try.
The next step in the process was to fill out an application to buy a Bugatti, followed by an interview with representatives of the historied French luxury car maker. The interview would ascertain whether an interested party wanted to buy a Bugatti for the “right” reasons. In Bilal’s case, the reasons were obviously to the satisfaction of the company, as he was next asked to fly out to France to visit the factory.
As Bilal puts it, he wasn’t taken to a big factory, filled with automated lines and robots. Instead he was taken to the Château St. Jean, the same venue at which founder Ettore Bugatti would conduct business meetings as far back as 1928. It’s as much a part of the Molsheim experience as anything else, and is now home to Bugatti Automobiles, with several of the company’s historic models on display. Next, Bilal was taken to where each Bugatti model was being hand-built, by just a handful of technicians.
Having successfully passed the ownership requirements, Bilal had to put down a $1.5 million deposit to buy the Chiron. The next step was in personalizing the car, something he’d been looking forward to. Here too, Bugatti standards were high, and not every customization can be carried out if it doesn’t meet their criteria.
Two-and-a-half years after first filling out the application, Bilal Hydrie’s Chiron was delivered to him in early 2024, making him the proud owner of the last Bugatti Chiron to roll out from the factory. Bilal, in the interview, stresses that hard work and perseverance can get anyone, anywhere, even behind the wheel of a Bugatti. Bilal has seen the upcoming Bugatti Chiron-replacement as part of an exclusive invite for Bugatti customers, and he’s already ordered his next Bugatti.
