2012 Bugatti Veyron 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:

Bugatti names former Ferrari, Lotus man its new American chief

After six years running its American operations, John Hill is leaving Bugatti. So the exotic carmaker is going to need someone to fill his shoes - particularly since the United States and Canada account for a quarter of all Bugattis sold (to say nothing of Latin America). Fortunately, it appears to have found just the right person in Maurizio Parlato.
An old hand in moving exotic sports cars in North America, Parlato comes to his role as Chief Operating Officer at Bugatti of the Americas after years in the business. He served as top man in America first for Ferrari and Maserati and then at Lotus, holding numerous other positions at both companies over the years, including the latter's global sales and marketing director. (Lotus, for what it's worth, was once owned by Bugatti, but that was long before Parlato arrived on the scene.)
Parlato assumes his new role at Bugatti at a time when the company is trying to move the last few dozen Veyrons before switching over to its successor. He'll have a network of 13 dealers to manage, satisfy and ultimately expand, but if anyone can do it, Parlato seems to have proven that he can.

Here's how to cook a Christmas dinner like Ettore Bugatti

Ettore Bugatti is primarily known for building championship-winning race cars, such as the Type 35, but his interests extended far beyond the automotive industry. He developed airplanes, he sketched boats, and he experimented with various gadgets, including a pasta machine he designed himself. He was also an excellent cook, and Bugatti has cracked open its archives department to share some of its founder's favorite recipes. When he wasn't in his workshop, or selling electric runabouts to the world's elite, Bugatti liked to spend time in his kitchen fine-tuning recipes. He tested different ingredients, and he also mapped out the exact way each meal's table needed to be set; he notably replaced flowers with baskets of exotic fruits, and he created his own cutlery set. Highly accurate sketches (pictured) were handed out to members of his staff to convey his instructions. He served the folks he invited for Christmas the same dinner each year: minestrone as a starter, blazed duck breast with truffle puree and cassis sauce as a main course, and strawberry gratin for dessert. Bugatti listed the ingredients and the instructions in a post published on its media site. It's certainly not a quick and easy meal to make for novice cooks, but it's a lot faster and simpler than building a Chiron, which takes several weeks. Enthusiasts who want to dive deeper into Bugatti's ties to food need to travel to the Alsace region of France, the company's historic home. Although he never operated his own restaurant, he convinced three of his friends to create an establishment called Clos Saint Odile in Obernai, a picturesque town about 15 minutes away from Molsheim and surrounded by vineyards, so that his customers would have a suitably upmarket place to dine in. It still exists today, though it's called La Fourchette des Ducs, and it was awarded two stars in the Michelin Guide. Keep your ears peeled. You may hear a W16 engine roaring to life in the nearby Atelier. Related Video: