Porsche just got paid to let go of Bugatti. On September 9, the German sports car maker confirmed it has completed the sale of its stakes in Bugatti Rimac and Rimac Group, wrapping up a five-year experiment in shared ownership after clearing the last regulatory hurdles. The price tag: roughly €1 billion, or about $1.2 billion, landing in Porsche’s accounts.
Here’s the part that actually matters more than the headline number. Porsche isn’t pocketing that cash for a rainy day fund or a new engineering skunkworks. The automaker says 250 million euros of the proceeds will go straight toward shoring up its pension obligations, and the rest is doing something almost as unglamorous: padding a cash flow forecast. Porsche now expects its 2026 automotive net cash flow margin to land between 5.5% and 7.5%, up from a previous guidance of 3% to 5%. For a company that builds 911s and Cayennes, a net cash flow margin isn’t exactly a spec sheet flex, but it’s the number that keeps bondholders and the Volkswagen Group’s finance department calm at night, and lately Porsche has needed all the calm it can get.
Rewind to November 2021, when Porsche, Bugatti, and Mate Rimac’s electric hypercar outfit stood up a joint venture that looked, on paper, like a clever hedge. Porsche held 45% of Bugatti Rimac and 20.6% of the broader Rimac Group, giving Volkswagen’s crown jewel sports car brand a foothold in EV hypercar technology without fully betting the farm on it. Bugatti kept building W16-powered showpieces while Rimac supplied battery and motor know-how on the side.
That structure didn’t survive contact with reality. Backfire News reported back in October 2025 that Rimac was already circling Porsche’s stake, and now it’s official: full control of Bugatti Rimac reverts to Rimac Group and a set of new investors, with Porsche walking away entirely.
The leadership shakeup tells you where this is headed. Mate Rimac, the company’s founder, is taking over as president of Bugatti Automobiles, and former Rimac Technology executive Marko Brkljacic is expected to join as chief operating officer. That’s not a caretaker arrangement, that’s Rimac’s own team stepping into the cockpit of a marque that’s spent decades building its identity around quad-turbo W16 engines. Anyone hoping Bugatti stays a combustion holdout should pay close attention to who’s signing the checks now.
None of this happens in a vacuum. Porsche has spent the past year trimming everything that isn’t bolted to its core lineup, including ending its factory World Endurance Championship hypercar program and reportedly reconsidering electric versions of the 718 Cayman and Boxster. Weak demand in China and a slower-than-expected EV transition have squeezed margins across the entire European auto industry, and Porsche’s response has been to sell what it can and protect the cash flow figures that keep investors from panicking.
For Bugatti owners, the practical questions are less dramatic than the ownership chart suggests. Warranty coverage, parts supply, and service networks don’t typically change overnight in deals like this, those obligations usually get spelled out in the transaction agreement rather than left to chance. The bigger long-term question is product direction: whether future Bugattis lean further into Rimac’s electric powertrain expertise or keep riding the combustion wave that’s made cars like the Tourbillon and Mistral into seven-figure collector pieces. Rimac’s own resume, including limited-run machines like the Nevera R, hints at where its instincts run.
It’s also a reminder that flashy hypercar culture and dry corporate accounting are more connected than they look. A car brand that sells vehicles most people will only ever see in a viral parade video is still, underneath it all, a line item on a balance sheet, and right now, Porsche needed that line item to read differently than it has the past few years.
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