The Secret Bugatti Atlantic - the Bugatti concept that never became reality

This is the Bugatti Atlantic, a secret Bugatti concept car that never saw the light of day.

Initially designed as a tribute to the original Atlantic Type 57, Atlantic was supposed to be the Veyron successor.

But that never happened.

The truth is, there’s a very good reason why it never happened.

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How the Bugatti Atlantic came to be

After the success of the Veyron, Bugatti wanted to make their next car even better and this was one of the models they were working on.

Unveiled in 2015 at Pebble Beach, the Atlantic was designed as an ultra-luxurious grand tourer, powered by a twin-turbo V8 at the front, and four electric motors – one at each wheel.

It was a great car, but the timing was terrible.

Back then, Bugatti’s parent company, Volkswagen Group, was still dealing with the emission scandal, and the world was still recovering after the 2007-2008 financial crisis.

These are two of the reasons why Bugatti decided to can the Atlantic project, but it isn’t the main one.

The main reason the car was canceled

Atlantic was a concept, but it wasn’t the concept, by which we mean that Bugatti was working on several different ideas at the same time.

The supercar manufacturer eventually decided to scrap the idea to create a production version for the Atlantic to focus on another project, Chiron.

The automaker had clearly had already made good progress with the Chiron, because it was unveiled just one year later, in 2016.

After nearly a decade and an incredibly long and varied list of limited-edition versions, Bugatti finally retired the W16 Chiron and replaced it with the new V16 Tourbillon, the first Bugatti developed by the automaker after merging with Rimac.