Volkswagen group has always carried a reputation for selling cars at a lower price than their production costs. They say that it is done to show the world what they can do – regardless of the costs. However, as small as it may seem per car, in the long run, the cost incurred to the company is absolutely phenomenal. A research conducted by an automotive analyst in Bernstein Research reveals the top 25 most money-losing cars in modern times.
The Bugatti Veyron is one machine that is known to incur a per unit loss of £3.8million. VolkswagenAudi Group publicised to the world that the Veyron was done to showcase their technological know-how to produce the world’s fastest production car and at that time, it certainly set a milestone that seemed difficult for others to follow. But of course 9 years down the line, the Veyron has built an array of competitors almost at the end of its life.
The Veyron is powered by an 8.7-litre W16 Quad-turbocharged engine which produces 1000bhp. The standard Veyron is capable of pushing its mass to a top speed of 257mph and a Zerotohundred time of 2.5seconds. Later on, Bugatti did release a more powerful 1200bhp Supersports to push their speed record higher to 272mph.
A total of 357 units has been built so far and Bugatti’s plan is to end its production at 450 units. At the end of its life, the total loss that VAG will incur is set to be £1.75billion. Surprisingly, that amount is not even close to what Mercedes loss to make the little SmartForTwo. Mercedes had to start from scratch on the SmartForTwo’s platform and engine development; at the same time they had to spend a lot of money on a new factory to build the ForTwo. A total of £2.82billion made the SmartForTwo a more expensive car to build over the Veyron overall.
Bugatti has released teaser photos of their next generation Veyron. The company is saying that it will be powered by a similar engine, however will produce at least 1600bhp. The next generation may be years to come but all we’d like to say is, thank you VolkswagenAudi Group for making the Veyron possible.
