Movers, Moving Company on 2040-cars

Auto blog

1 of 3 Bugatti EB112 super-sedans built is for sale

Bugatti has never strived to achieve volume, but some of its cars are rarer than others. One is the EB112, an obscure fastback-like sedan envisioned as a follow-up to the EB110, canned when the firm collapsed in 1995, and resurrected by a third-party company in the late 1990s. Historians agree that three examples of the EB112 were built, and the second one has been listed for sale by a dealer in Germany. Presented as a concept at the 1993 edition of the Geneva auto show, the EB112 represented one of the ways that Italian entrepreneur Romano Artioli hoped to breathe new life into the storied French carmaker. It took the form of a large, four-door super-sedan with an aluminum body and a naturally-aspirated, 6.0-liter V12 tuned to send about 460 horsepower to the four wheels via a five-speed manual transmission. It offered passengers an interior that was luxurious without being over-the-top. In short, the modern-day Royale had arrived. Bugatti quoted a 0-62-mph time of 4.3 seconds, which was remarkable considering the era and the car's weight, and a top speed of 186 mph. Orders started coming in, but Bugatti filed for bankruptcy in September 1995 and the project was canceled. It closed its factory in Campogalliano, Italy, leaving behind 128 examples of the EB110 and one EB112, but the story doesn't end there: two additional EB112s were left partially assembled inside the so-called Blue Factory. Gildo Pallanca Pastor bought some of the company's assets and asked the Monaco Racing Team to complete the unfinished cars, according to dealer Schaltkulisse. The car that it's selling is the first one of those. Schaltkulisse notes that chassis number 39002 was ordered on April 27, 1993, by Bugatti's Swiss importer and delivered in February 2000. It has been registered in Geneva since 2003 and its odometer displays around 3,900 kilometers, which represents approximately 2,500 miles. It's presented as a one-owner car that's still powered by a front-mid-mounted 6.0-liter V12. Pricing is only available upon request, but don't expect this fascinating part of Bugatti's multi-faceted history to come cheap. We wouldn't be surprised if it costs more than a new Chiron. Related Video:

Bugatti reveals the final version of the one-off La Voiture Noire

Bugatti is ready to deliver the La Voiture Noire, a one-of-a-kind model introduced at the 2019 edition of the Geneva auto show. Based on the Chiron, the coachbuilt coupe meets the same quality standards as a series-produced car. Making the La Voiture Noire a reality took two years because it underwent a long list of tests before Bugatti signed it off. As we've previously reported, it was blasted with thousands of gallons of water to ensure it's watertight and was driven flat-out on a track, among other evaluations. Over 65,000 engineering hours were invested into the project, a number that underlines the significant differences between the La Voiture Noire and the Chiron it's related to. And yet, Bugatti managed to keep the show car's lines and finer design details intact during development. While the quad-turbocharged, 1,479-horsepower 8.0-liter W16 engine comes from the Chiron, all of the carbon fiber exterior panels are new and the wheelbase is slightly longer. Bugatti also notes each headlight features 25 individually-milled elements, and that the grille was 3D-printed. Overall, the La Voiture Noire wears a purer, more touring-oriented design than the aforementioned Chiron and the Divo. It's not fitted with a rear wing, for example. Interior photos haven't been released, but we're told the seats are upholstered in Havana Brown leather. It creates a classic ambience that matches the turned aluminum inlays scattered across the cabin, like on the center console. There is but a single example of the La Voiture Noire, and Bugatti's not taking bids. The coupe is already sold to an anonymous collector, who paid 11 million euros (about $13.4 million at the current conversion rate) for it before taxes enter the equation. Time will tell if the new owner reveals his or her identity, drives the car, or keeps it tucked away in a private collection. In the meantime, the French firm will work on bringing the Centodieci to production. Perhaps inspired by Bugatti's success, some of the other luxury carmakers have started breathing new life into the long-lost tradition of coachbuilding during the past few years. Rolls-Royce notably created a yacht-inspired, one-of-a-kind convertible called Boat Tail for an anonymous couple that reportedly paid approximately $28 million for it. What's in a name? La Voiture Noire literally translates to "The Black Car" in French. It's entirely black, but there's more to it than paint and trim.

Audi CEO says brand's EVs are almost as profitable as its other cars

After, oh, a hundred years or so of building vehicles primarily powered by internal combustion engines, automakers around the world have been and still are pumping billions of dollars into the development of electric vehicle technology. Everything from platforms and batteries to motors and the software to control it all requires untold hours of development, and that takes time and money. Fortunately, it's not going to take long for that massive investment to start paying off, at least according to Audi CEO Markus Duesmann, who told Reuters in an interview that "The point where we earn as much money with electric cars as with combustion engine cars is now, or ... next year, 2023. They are very even now, the prices." As a brand, Audi contributed more than a quarter of overall profit for the massive Volkswagen Group, which has such powerhouse brands as Volkswagen and Porsche among others. Under the Audi umbrella are Lamborghini, Bentley and Ducati, and it seems those high-end branches aren't going anywhere, at least for now. "These brands ... are very valuable very profitable brands, where we can even expand the synergy level in the future," Duesmann said in the interview. "There are no plans whatsoever to get rid of them." Despite the overall profitability of the brand, the ongoing global chip crisis is causing headaches. "We had a very strong first half in 2021. We do expect a much weaker second half," said Duesmann, who added, "We really have trouble." In fact, so serious is the trouble that the brand is forced into "a day-to-day troubleshooting process" to limit the chip-shortage damage. The good news for the automaker is that Audi has been able to boost its profit margin from 8% prior to the pandemic in 2019 to 10.7% in the first half of 2021. The bad news is that various chip shortages aren't expected to get a whole lot better over the rest of the year. Related video: