The luxury sports car brand Bugatti is leaving the Volkswagen Group

The luxury sports car brand Bugatti is leaving the Volkswagen Group after more than two decades. The VW subsidiary Porsche and the Croatian electric sports car specialist Rimac have signed contracts for a joint venture called Bugatti-Rimac, Porsche said. Rimac will hold 55 percent and Porsche 45 percent. It should start in the fourth quarter. VW is transferring its Bugatti ownership to Porsche for this. Antitrust authorities in several countries have yet to approve the deal. "We are bundling the strong expertise of Bugatti in the hypercar business with the great innovative strength of Rimac in the promising field of electromobility," said Porsche boss Oliver Blume. The future boss Mate Rimac, founder and owner of the new majority owner of the same name, declared that he wanted to make the exclusive carmaker financially successful and profitable. In a virtual press conference from Dubrovnik, he did not rule out an IPO of his company, which he founded in a garage in 2009. VW boss Herbert Diess announced the plan for a joint venture with Rimac in March. Porsche wants to play a strong role as a strategic partner, explained the Stuttgart carmaker. He entered into a partnership with Rimac three years ago and now holds 24 percent of the company. Bugatti-Rimac is said to have 430 employees - 300 at the Rimac headquarters in Zagreb and 130 employees at the Bugatti factory in Molsheim, France. The first models are said to be a Bugatti Chiron with a combustion engine and the all-electric Rimac Nevera.