Bugatti Rimac CEO Mate Rimac gave Auto Express a look behind the scenes of his short time as head of the combined hypercar companies, as well as a peep into the CEO’s crystal ball. The interview deserves a read because Rimac is the latest, closest thing we have to “garage car guy catapults himself into industry bigwig” — the hugely successful corporate antipode to Christian von Koenigsegg’s hugely successful indie label. In 2007, at 19 years old, Rimac began converting his BMW 3 Series to an electric powertrain. Four years later, he showed the Rimac Concept One at the Frankfurt Motor Show. Ten years after that, he took the lead at Bugatti. He told Auto Express that as soon as he agreed with VW to lead the Molsheim luxury brand, which was two years before being installed as CEO, he and his team began working on a new internal combustion engine for a future Bugatti.

Rimac said he’d already been working on a Bugatti project, ex-CEO Stephan Winkelmann having sought assistance on “an electric CUV similar to what the Ferrari Purosange turned out to be.” We’re told the idea was to rework the Rimac Nevera powertrain for the purpose. Once Rimac knew he was going to take over the joint venture company, the crossover was dead. Rimac said, “I knew exactly what I wanted the next car [after the Chiron] to be, and we started developing a combustion engine on our own.” We will get a concept view of that powerplant next year, described as a “totally bonkers” hybrid in a car that…