Bugatti sells most expensive car ever made for $12.5 million
The most expensive car ever made has been sold. The Bugatti "La Voiture Noire," built to to mark the automaker's 110th anniversary, sold for €11 million euros ($12.5 million) after debuting Tuesday at the Geneva International Motor Show in Switzerland. After taxes the final sales price hits €16.7 million, or $18.9 million.
"We are paying tribute to a long tradition, to France and to the creative work of Jean Bugatti," said Stephan Winkelmann, President of Bugatti Automobiles S.A.S, in a press release. "At the same time, we are transferring extraordinary technology, aesthetics and extreme luxury to a new age."
The aerodynamic sports car, which is the only one of its kind built, boasts a 1,149 horsepower and a quad-turbocharged 16-cylinder engine with six tailpipes. It is not yet known what the top speed is for the car, but its design is based on the Bugatti Chiron supercar, which has a top speed of 261 miles-per-hour.
While the new owner has not been made public, both Bloomberg and CNBC cite several auto industry reports that the car may have been purchased by Ferdinand Piech, the former Volkswagen Group chairman. Piech left Volkswagen AG in April 2015.
"La Voiture Noire," which means "the black car" in French, has a smooth, unique shape made of jet-black carbon fiber, one almost akin to the Batmobile.
"Every single component has been handcrafted and the carbon fibre body has a deep black gloss only interrupted by the ultrafine fibre structure. This is a material that has been handled perfectly," says Bugatti designer Etienne Salomé, in a press release. "We worked long and hard on this design until was nothing that we could improve. For us, the coupé represents the perfect form with a perfect finish."
The original Bugatti car manufacturer was founded in 1909 in Molsheim, Alsace, and specialized in the production of carefully designed French sports cars during the 20th century. In the 1990s, the company was rebranded as a producer of limited edition sports cars, some of which broke world speed records. Today it is owned by German automaker Volkswagen, who purchased the Bugatti trademark in 1998.