On the surface, the question is preposterous, maybe even a little blasphemous. Bugatti struggling to sell its new Chiron supercar sounds like the backbone of a not-so funny joke. Haha, right? Here’s the thing, though. There might be some layer of truth to it, now that no less than Bugatti’s own CEO, Wolfgang Durheimer, admitted that the French supercar brand has received a total of 220 confirmed orders for the Chiron so far. Considering that Bugatti has plans to build 500 units of the Chiron over a span of eight years, 280 unaccounted for units seem a lot for a car that’s succeeding the Veyron, one of the most iconic performance cars of this generation.
There are, of course, a number of ways to interpret Durheimer’s comments. On the one hand, it is possible that Bugatti is taking its time accepting new orders for the Chiron now that production for the car has started. According to GT Spirit, Bugatti has even increased production capacity in order to build 65 models for 2017, a sign that the company is going to be up to its head next year building all these units without any delays. The capacity also means that there’s a three-year wait for new orders, which would explain why the Chiron has yet to sell out despite its overall awesomeness.
On the other hand, even Durheimer himself seems to think that the Chiron isn’t selling as well as Bugatti expected. In the conversation with GT Spirit, the Bugatti boss expressed “hope” that new orders for the Chiron will come in once prospective customers see for themselves the surreal experience of driving one of the fastest and most powerful cars in the world. “I’m confident the customers who have not yet decided to order a Chiron will do so when they have had a chance to drive it,” Durheimer added.
Color me skeptical, but that sounds like a man who’s still trying to sell the merits of the Chiron to would-be customers. The supercar’s $2.6 million price tag certainly doesn’t help its cause. Nor does the $200,000 deposit that Bugatti is asking to secure a reservation for the supercar. These factors could have played significant roles on why Bugatti has yet to find owners for more than half of the Chirons it plans to build.
So while it’s not entirely accurate that Bugatti is “struggling” to sell the Chiron, the fact the model has yet to sell out is pretty surprising.
Continue after the jump to read the full story.
from Top Speed http://ift.tt/2gfocuB
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