It turns out there are more wealthy car nuts than
we thought - there's so much demand for the Bugatti Veyron that the current wait for delivery of the 'bahn-burner is
14-15 months, and Bugatti is increasing its annual production capacity for the supercar by 40 percent, from 50 to 70
units, to deal with the backlog. Still not a large number, but when you figure that the car sells for nearly $1.2
million, the extra 20 Veyrons add up to a significant chunk of change.Where are they going? To the speed-starved U.S. market, apparently. The majority of the 14 cars completed so far are going to the U.S., and Bugatti sees the greatest demand for the rest of the production run also in the U.S., particularly in southern California and the greater New York area.
With the limited edition Veyron selling out faster than expected, look for a new Bugatti model to be announced soon.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
JS @ Mar 14th 2006 5:46PM
A return of the T57 maybe? One can only hope :)
Cant wait to see my first Veyron!
Joel A @ Mar 14th 2006 5:57PM
They're probably coming to Orange County. I think I'll avoid PCH for a while....
snaab @ Mar 14th 2006 6:08PM
i heard on top gear that they dont make a dime on these... they in fact lose money on each one they sell... due to all the dev. costs. Can anyone bakc this up?
beautiful car though...
Grant Guthrie @ Mar 14th 2006 6:30PM
Now that the car is in production Bugatti is not selling the car itself for a loss, that would be incredibly stupid.
However, they did reportedly spend more than $400 million to develop the car in the first place, so the program as a whole will not make any money.
There's some posts out there that estimate the cost per car (including development costs spread out per car) at 5 million pounds, though I think that must be high.
arunGT @ Mar 14th 2006 6:39PM
Snaab,
I'm an HUGE HUGE HUGE top gear fan. Since I live in the states i'm religous about dl'ing the episodes on BT on the mondays following sundays when the show is aired... BUT, I think the top gear guyz may have made a mistake... or rather not explained it right:
Consider this... A significant portion of the cost of any product is its RDET (research, development, evaluation, testing) - that is aerospace-speak, but it applies to anything. NOW, that cost is a one time thing... once you enter production, it should be assumed that your car has passed all required tests, meets road legislation, and you don't have to worry about additional costs besides material cost of manufacturing, labor, and overhead (costs to run the factory). But these later costs are usually (per unit) smaller than the RDET... and even if not, the cost to the consumer covers them.
SO... say the RDET for the Veyron was 80 million, and the cost per car (manufacturing, labor, and factory overhead is 100,000)... then for 50 cars:
cost(2Bugatti) per car = 50,000 + 80,000,000/50
= 1,650,000
450,000 loss: not a profit
BUT FOR 70 CARS:
cost(2Bugatti) per car = 50,000 + 80,000,000/70
= 1,192,857
so now they're making an $8k profit... Now don't take these numbers as the actual figures for the Veyron... but this is an example how by extending production, they can pay off the development costs of the Veyron, and while initially losing money, they can eventually turn a profit by continuing production.
Personally I don't believe the 1.2 million number... I thought I read somewhere they were going for 1.6 or 1.8. Hope this helps!!
arunGT @ Mar 14th 2006 6:41PM
Factory overhead = 50,000
tbyron @ Mar 14th 2006 7:50PM
I saw one in La Jolla (San Diego area) last month.
Richard Warren @ Mar 14th 2006 9:26PM
Vindicaton for Piech, and yes they are beautiful
Boss Sauce @ Mar 14th 2006 10:20PM
Lovely, incredible cars, for sure, but they're just not Bugattis-- Ettore and Jean are dead. You can't make a new Pierce-Arrow either.
JZeke @ Mar 15th 2006 7:11AM
I saw 2 up in Amelia Island last weekend; they were holding their annual Concours d' Elegance there.
The blue and white press car was there, and a coal/dark gray model was driving around too. I gotta say, while parked next to SLRs it looks fairly purposeful, in traffic it looks almost ordinary.
I have a shot of the gray one crossing an intersection with a Pontiac on the other side, and unlike the SLR it really fits in.
Best part about the Veyron? When it fires up it sounds like a 40's fighter plane. Amazing. Then it dies down to a very quiet hum as it pulls off. Under regular acceleration you can just hear the turbos beginning to spool.
If you ever see one up close, peer in the space under the rear wing, its full of grubby aluminum and actuators... and alot of empty space for cooling. This car has pretty much every cubic millimeter filled with some sort of engineering.
Heydn @ Mar 15th 2006 9:42AM
"Cranks up" is a relative term.
Peter @ Mar 15th 2006 10:34AM
Im one of the very very few lucky ones that saw this ride sitting at the Braman Dealership in Miami!! HAHAHAHAAH..too bad i didnt get to test drive it like this guy... http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/13977950.htm
Adrian @ Mar 15th 2006 11:47AM
Many people seem to think that there is an overall loss if the sales of the Veyron don't recoop all costs of its production.
This is not true. Just ask any car-manufacturer team (BMW, Honda, Ferrari) in F1 why they spend ~$200M per year. It is all about image and marketting.
$400M for the technologically greatest road car ever made is cheap compared with $1000M for 5 years in F1 where the car has little correlation with anything you can buy.
tariq @ Oct 15th 2006 7:24AM
how much does it cost to consumers? 1.2million?
i heard only 300 will be made
so that makes it 360 million.
400 million only for developement cost leads them to atleast 40 million loss. plus the cost of producing every single car(labour raw material energy etc.)
Isnt 400 million too low?
I read about a new porsche(i think it was panamera or cayman) and the cost was 1 billion plus dollars