Bugatti CEO Mate Rimac: The future of supercars is combustion engines
tosh
17 points
44 comments
August 28, 2026
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Discussion Highlights (13 comments)
slices
It's obvious, now that we have fast, flashy, quiet cars, that part of the appeal of supercars has always been the sound of the engine.
feverzsj
Guess only rich people can afford carbon taxes in the future.
comrade1234
It's like Swiss watches. Sure, a digital watch would be better but if you're really into mechanics and engineering a fancy hand-made swiss watch is your thing.
Sweepi
The future of supercars is to outlaw them to make any engine noise on the road. There is no reason to have engine noise other then that not having engine noise is not possible at a given price point. This is obviously not the case with "supercars". If you want to buy a toy that makes noise, get a non street-legal car for the race track. There is no reason why 99.9..% of the population should be required to tolerate more (street-)noise than necessary.
Peanuts99
The difference being Swiss watches are elegantly engineered pieces of art whereas internal combustion engines of any kind are essentially just rube goldberg machines that we have collectively normalised as a society.
rasz
>loud internal combustion engines and emotional appeal. VW ran the numbers and realized they cant compete with Chinese $100K 2000HP EVs accelerating in 2.5 second and beating any supercar.
ortusdux
YASA motors makes a 30lb electric motor the size of a Roomba that outputs 1000 peak horsepower. The future of many supercars will be hybrids with the electric train doing the brunt of the work. https://www.arenaev.com/yasa_makes_a_1000hp_electric_motor_t...
cyanydeez
well of course it is: it's for rich assholes who need to separate themselves and say "look, I'm an asshole with so much money and so little care, I can purchase a gas powered vehicle and ignore all the rammifications". Dude is on point to his audience, gotta applause that.
snowwrestler
What he actually believes about the future of cars is not the really the point of this statement. The point is to position himself now, today, in the minds of his target audience. EVs are not cool today and nostalgia-driven grievance against them is. So: the future is the past! Specifically all the stuff you thought was cool when you were 17. But now, you have the money to pay for it.
m463
Person: "I have a tesla roadster that can fly." Bugatti CEO: "that's not a supercar."
Stevvo
The manufacturers certainly want the future of supercars to be combustion engines. Combustion engines are their moat; without them, there is little unique about their vehicles. But BMW felt the same about regular gasoline cars & hybrids. That didn't turn out too well for them.
dzhiurgis
20 years ago bugatti released 1000hp vehicle. Now it’s not even impressive anymore. Chinese moved to megawatt scale. Of course in some markets ICE engines will remain mainstream, and in some they are seen as absolute cringe.
b0rtb0rt
why is everyone on hacker news always so butthurt about cars lol