Bugatti CEO Mate Rimac has offered his perspective on the global automotive market as the industry navigates the shift toward EVs and rising fuel prices, which are pushing more consumers to consider alternatives. Rimac compared the evolving market to the luxury watch industry, suggesting that wealthy buyers may increasingly favor the mechanical driving experience of internal-combustion engines, while the masses transition to EVs.With several automakers shifting toward producing low-cost EVs in a bid to compete with Chinese manufacturers, Rimac suggested that luxury auto manufacturers will continue to make internal combustion engines. That could be true, considering that Porsche and Lamborghini have focused their strategies on gas-powered engines and hybrids. Rimac told CNBC:"For normal cars, normal people, the vast majority will be electric. The upper segment, like sports cars and upwards, are going to stay combustion for a very long time, exactly like watches. Only like 5% of watches are made in Switzerland, but that's where 90% of profits are made. An Apple Watch or any kind of smart watch can do so many more things. But no one will pay $200,000 for it."Image Credit: BugattiAdvertisementAdvertisementRimac is witnessing this firsthand, as Bugatti builds its 16-cylinder internal-combustion engines alongside Rimac's electric cars, such as the Nevera R, which produces more than 2,000 hp. He said:"It's kind of ironic that I'm now making the world's biggest combustion engine. You have the crazy situation now at our facility in Croatia. On the same production line, you have the world's most powerful electric car being built right next to the world's biggest combustion engine. Life is strange sometimes."Rimac added that performance is no longer the only factor driving hypercar purchases. Increasingly, buyers value the human element behind these cars- the craftsmanship, personalization, and bespoke touches that can turn them into timeless works of art. He said:"You can get a car that's faster than any performance car from 10 years ago for like $50,000 from China. Performance is really becoming secondary. It's more about what I call the celebration of human skills. When you look at these cars, you see the amount of ingenuity and art and beauty.AdvertisementAdvertisement"The car is, like, the most complex object you can buy. It's art, but it's art that needs to go 250 miles per hour and be safe, have downforce and survive in a crash test and go in the snow and extreme heat, and all those things."Image Credit: Bugatti
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