The new Bugatti is coming in 2016

Get ready. The head of Volkswagen Group design has confirmed to TopGear.com that work on the next Bugatti model is well underway, with an expected launch in early 2016.

Walter de Silva, who has headed up VW Group’s design since 2007, said “we’re working hard at Bugatti, but don’t worry, it’s coming. I cannot predict exactly, but at the end of 2015 or early 2016, we’ll see the new Bugatti.”

De Silva wouldn’t confirm exactly what form this new car would take, but did concede that it “won’t be a Veyron replacement, it’ll be more than that. We’re investigating all avenues at the moment”.

He remained confident, however, it will be something incredible. “For me, Bugatti is not a car,” de Silva said, “it is a piece of art. You have to understand this. You are in another range when you talk about Bugatti. No, forget that, you play in another league with Bugatti. When you buy a Bugatti, you buy a piece of art. It’s a story, and I would like to transfer the Bugatti idea in this way.”

Tech-wise, again, de Silva remained tight-lipped, but did say how the company is putting “a lot of attention in the technology for the new Bugatti. We’re developing a few different concepts at the moment, working together with the engineers and designers at the same time.

“Bugatti is something that in the end is a car, OK, but it’s a car that is a lifestyle. Bugatti is a part of your sensitivity, of your feeling,” de Silva added.

So what do we know, then? Earlier this year, Bugatti boss Dr Wolfgang Schreiber told Top Gear that the company would not build a ‘SuperVeyron’ or indeed a production version of the 2009 Galibier concept (pictured above). 

“We have talked many, many times about the Galibier, but this car will not come because it would confuse our customers,” Dr Schreiber told us. “With the Veyron, we placed Bugatti on top of all super sportscar brands in the whole world. Everyone knows that Bugatti is the ultimate super sportscar.”

Whatever this new car is, it will have to ‘redefine the benchmarks’, he added. And let us not forget, those benchmarks have been set just about as high as possible…  Watch this space.

Head this way for Top Gear's farewell Veyron road trip across Route 66