Development and Optimization of Hypercar Performance

Bugatti Rimac is a hypercar manufacturer and combined entity of Rimac Automobili and Bugatti Automobiles officially incorporated in November 2021, uniting Rimac’s technical expertise and agile operations with Bugatti’s 110-year heritage and depth of engineering knowledge.

Bugatti Rimac employs around 435  people, of which 300 are headquartered in Zagreb, Croatia and 135 in Molsheim, France. In addition, there are 180 people from Bugatti Engineering’s location in Wolfsburg, Germany who support the company projects. Rimac Automobili and Bugatti Automobiles each continue to operate as separate brands and manufacturers, retaining their individual production facilities in Zagreb and Molsheim respectively as well as the distribution channels.

In June 2021, Rimac Nevera was presented to the world. Designed, engineered, tested and manufactured in-house at Rimac Automobili’s global headquarters in Croatia, Nevera’s name proudly carries its Croatian heritage. A nevera is a mighty Croatian storm, known for its speed, ferocity and energy – a fitting name therefore for both the Nevera’s character and ability. Soon, Nevera became the world’s fastest accelerating production car – it is fully homologated and consists of four electric motors powering each wheel independently, with a high-capacity battery and a power output of up to 1.4 MW.

With the goal of creating very special projects in the future, the two companies decided to pool their knowledge, technologies and assets. Hence, a new project is currently underway for Bugatti, a hypercar which will be about heritage and craftsmanship as well as introduce the exciting benefits of a hybridized new powertrain to the customers.

During the inital stages of the project, setting up requirements is critical to ensure an efficient and harmonious system. IPG CarMaker becomes a valuable tool to parameterize and develop such a system. With the focus on powertrain development, IPG CarMaker is used to analyse vehicle behavior and evaluate performance targets. It is also used as a track simulation tool to conduct sensitivity analyses and provide valuable inputs for component sizing, durability cycles, cooling requirements/optimization, etc.