Volkswagen lost 6.7 million with each one who sold

On the Paseo de la Fame of the luxury supercoches, there is a star reserved for a car that, although their wealthy buyers had to put on the table 1.7 million dollars to remove it from the dealership, every time a unit was sold, its manufacturer lost 6.7 million dollars: The Bugatti Veyron.

Bugatti Veyron: A luxury and speed icon

The Bugatti Veyron He was born in 2005 of one Ambitious idea: Create the faster, powerful and luxurious car in the world. And what if they got it. Ferdinand Piëch, the visionary architect of the current Volkswagen group and grandson of Ferdinand Porsche himself. The passion for speed and luxury was carried in the DNA.

This supercar mounted one of the engines that has given the most joys to Bugatti. It’s about Your brutal W16 of 8.0 liters and four turbos, with which it was able to accelerate as a rocket and break cut speed records above 406 km/h. This figure became almost a demand for The desire for “revenge” of the brand for a speed record in Le Mans.

The name of the Veyron also closely linked to Le Mans’s career, since he honors Bugatti’s pilot and engineer Pierre Veyronwhich in 1939 won the 24 hours of Le Mans with one of the brands of the brand.

The brand took Six years to develop from the Veyron for the challenge of implementing an engine capable of developing 1,001 hp of power and 1,400 nm of touch. To keep the temperature of such a beast at bay, engineers had to integrate 10 radiators.

The exclusivity of the Bugatti Veyron was not only noticed when paying the 1.7 million dollars that cost Each unit. Each game of tires, especially Designed for the Veyron For Michelin, it cost the whopping $ 38,000 and had to replace every 4,000 km. On the track and maximum speed, the life of the tires was limited to about 15 minutes before disintegrating. Something that would rarely do, since the 106 liters of their deposit gave for 12 minutes. Without a doubt, a car with maintenance Far from the reach of many pockets.

The Veyron was not just speed. It was also extreme luxury. Every detail, from materials to labor, was of the highest quality. Having a Veyron was like having a work of art on wheels, a demonstration that you could afford the best of the best. Aspire to One of the special editions Del Veyron was already another level, and supposed to pay more than 2.7 million for some of them.

A ruinous business for Volkswagen

But here comes the surprising part: despite its millionaire sales price, Volkswagen lost money with every Veyron who sold. And not little, precisely.

Such and as they counted in Technology.orgthe financial research firm of Wall Street Bernstein Research published a report in which they assured that the Volkswagen group lost about 6.24 million dollars for each Bugatti Veyron that was sold. However, later the authors of that report admitted that this figure should be taken cautiously because it was based on approximate estimates.

Paradoxically, the explanation of this financial fiasco is given by its engineering and design success. Volkswagen did not spare on expenses to create the perfect car and for it They invested 1,620 million of dollars in their development.

The negative part is that Bugatti only sold 450 units of his Veyron in the 10 years he was on sale, so the investment in R&D was higher than the brand recovered selling cars, which was a financial fiasco.

However, although in absolute terms, the development effort of the Veyron was greater than the income of its sale, the technology that was developed for that jewel of engineering then served as the basis for all A supercoches lineage. Its legacy has served to knock down all the speed records until it reaches 490.48 km/h that reached the Bugatti Chiron Super Sport 300+ In 2019, such and as he collected Car and Driver.

Volkswagen was willing to assume those losses because he wanted to demonstrate his ability to create the Best Support Support in the World. Although, the Veyron was not a financial success in itself, it managed to position Bugatti as a reference brand on the map of luxury supercoches. A “failure” that, in the end, turned out to be a great triumph, although very expensive.

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Image | Bugatti