1927 Bugatti 35b Replica on 2040-cars

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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:

$4.4M Bugatti Bolide moves down the track and closer to production

Unveiled in 2020, and approved for production a year later, the Bugatti Bolide is one step closer to hitting the track. The automaker just published photos of the car being put through its paces, and it released details about some of features that differentiate it from the Chiron. Writing off the Bolide as a rebodied Chiron would be an oversimplification. While the two cars share an 8.0-liter, quad-turbocharged W16 engine, the list of Bolide-specific parts is long. Bugatti explains that its engineers designed the model around a new carbon fiber monocoque, and they were unfettered by the various rules and regulations that shape modern cars because the Bolide isn't street-legal. It's exclusively a track car. Changes were made to the cooling system, the suspension system, and the transmission; the suspension is notably three times stiffer than the Chiron's, and it includes uniball bearings. Several 3D-printed parts, including titanium rockers, will be used to build it. Even the engine isn't carried over; not quite. In the Bolide, the four turbochargers always provide boost because the 16-cylinder is expected to spend a lot of time at higher revolutions. In comparison, the Chiron uses a sequential setup: The two smaller turbos generate boost at up to 3,800 rpm, and the two bigger units kick in beyond that. The end result is 1,578 horsepower in a car that tips the scale at 3,196 pounds.  Slick tires designed by Michelin put the power to the ground, while a carbon-ceramic braking system keeps it in check. Interestingly, Bugatti designed new calipers that generate and absorb heat to help the brakes warm up as quickly as possible (they're less effective when cold). Bugatti will begin delivering the Bolide in 2024. Production is limited to 40 units, and the model is sold out in spite of a base price pegged at ˆ4 million excluding taxes, which represents approximately $4.39 million at the current conversion rate. If that's too much, or if you missed your chance to buy one, one alternative is a 905-piece Lego Technic kit that stretches about a foot long and that costs about $50. It's too early to tell what's next. We know that the Bolide is one of the last W16-powered Bugatti models along with the Mistral convertible and the final examples of the Chiron.

Hand-made, magnesium-bodied 1934 Bugatti Aerolithe visits Jay Leno's Garage

Rare, multi-million-dollar cars regularly cruise through Jay Leno's garage, but some of the vehicles that pay him visits are more special than others. The 1934 Bugatti Aerolithe that Leno recently dedicated an episode to is the kind of machine that punctures the membrane separating cars and art. The Aerolithe was designed by Jean Bugatti, the son of company founder Ettore, and its body was crafted entirely out of a magnesium alloy named Elektron in an effort to keep weight in check. As Leno points out, Elektron is spectacularly difficult to work with because it's hard to shape, and it has an alarming tendency to catch fire. That's why more than 1,200 exposed rivets helped keep the Aerolithe in one piece as it toured Europe in search of buyers. Period records indicate potential owners admired the performance delivered by the 3.3-liter straight-eight engine - the Aerolithe could reach nearly 110 mph - but not enough to buy one. While it remained a one-off model, it inspired Bugatti to make the cheaper, heavier Type 57 Atlantic with an aluminum body. The two cars looked a lot alike. The Aerolithe mysteriously disappeared before the beginning of World War II. Some sources believe it was parted out at the Bugatti factory in Molsheim, France, while others claim it was hidden and never taken out of storage. Regardless, its whereabouts remain unknown as of 2019. The example Leno tours Los Angeles in is a reproduction painstakingly made from the ground up by the Guild of Automotive Restorers in Canada. David Grainer, the Guild's founder, remembers the members of his team spent nearly a year figuring out how to recreate the Aerolithe before they started the project. They wanted to keep it as original as possible, so they used sheets of magnesium purchased for $3,000 a piece to make the body. Building a car from scratch (and by hand) is a challenging endeavor, but the Aerolithe project was even more complicated that it sounds because Grainer's team had only nine usable photographs to work with. Blueprints were lost long ago. Watch the full episode to learn more about the Aerolithe's history, and to find out what it's like to drive. For a look at a different side of Bugatti during the 1930s, read our story documenting the electric Type 56 that Ettore made in 1931 to drive around his property. Auto News Bugatti Classics