2011 Bugatti Veyron 16.4 8.0l "bleu Nuit" Grand Sport 315 Miles, One Owner on 2040-cars

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Dealer says he sold LeBron James a Bugatti. LeBron replies: 'LIARS!'

It’s news in the automobile chat rooms when LeBron James buys a new Bugatti. ItÂ’s news as well when LeBron James doesnÂ’t buy a new Bugatti. Seems that a California high-end dealership “congratulated” the NBA legend for all to see on Instagram about his "purchase," bragging that James was their “biggest VIP customer.Â’Â’ Turns out none of that was true — it's the car-dealer equivalent of stolen valor. “Stop the [cap]!! LIARS!!” James shot back on his own post, aiming his blast at the Effortless Motors dealership in Riverside. “I don't know y'all and I don't even have that car. CLOUT CHASERS.Â’Â’ James also shared a video posted by the dealer showing a car being loaded onto a truck. No details on that vehicle or on the supercar James purportedly bought. TMZ Sports said it spoke with Effortless Motors owner Daniel Ubario, who admitted that the uproar was part of a marketing ploy, and that he didn't expect the angry reaction from James Â… or from his legion of fans who took to social media to bash Ubario. Ubario also said that heÂ’d not worked with LeBron in any capacity in the past. Celebrities Marketing/Advertising Weird Car News Bugatti Supercars

Audi CEO says brand's EVs are almost as profitable as its other cars

After, oh, a hundred years or so of building vehicles primarily powered by internal combustion engines, automakers around the world have been and still are pumping billions of dollars into the development of electric vehicle technology. Everything from platforms and batteries to motors and the software to control it all requires untold hours of development, and that takes time and money. Fortunately, it's not going to take long for that massive investment to start paying off, at least according to Audi CEO Markus Duesmann, who told Reuters in an interview that "The point where we earn as much money with electric cars as with combustion engine cars is now, or ... next year, 2023. They are very even now, the prices." As a brand, Audi contributed more than a quarter of overall profit for the massive Volkswagen Group, which has such powerhouse brands as Volkswagen and Porsche among others. Under the Audi umbrella are Lamborghini, Bentley and Ducati, and it seems those high-end branches aren't going anywhere, at least for now. "These brands ... are very valuable very profitable brands, where we can even expand the synergy level in the future," Duesmann said in the interview. "There are no plans whatsoever to get rid of them." Despite the overall profitability of the brand, the ongoing global chip crisis is causing headaches. "We had a very strong first half in 2021. We do expect a much weaker second half," said Duesmann, who added, "We really have trouble." In fact, so serious is the trouble that the brand is forced into "a day-to-day troubleshooting process" to limit the chip-shortage damage. The good news for the automaker is that Audi has been able to boost its profit margin from 8% prior to the pandemic in 2019 to 10.7% in the first half of 2021. The bad news is that various chip shortages aren't expected to get a whole lot better over the rest of the year. Related video:

Bugatti considering electric four-seater as second model

Bugatti's long-rumored additional model could run on electricity rather than gasoline, according to a recent report. The company is tentatively planning a downward expansion without diluting its image. Downward is a relative term when spoken in the same sentence as Bugatti. The company isn't interested in chasing volume with an alternative to the Volkswagen GTI. Instead, Bloomberg wrote it's envisioning an electric four-seater priced between 500,000 and one million euros, sums that represent about $555,000 and $1.1 million, respectively. Bugatti CEO Stephan Winkelmann told the publication that convincing parent company Volkswagen to fund the model requires a "hard fight," however. "The industry is changing fundamentally, and we have to address what opportunities there are to develop Bugatti as a brand going forward," he explained. Releasing a second, cheaper model would mark a dramatic shift for the prestigious automaker, which has stuck to a one-core-model strategy since its renaissance in 1998. The EV could bump its annual output from about 100 to 600 cars. Winkelmann was the driving force behind the Urus when he ran Lamborghini, which has led to speculation that Bugatti's second model will be an SUV. Speaking to Autoblog, a spokesperson for the company again doused cold water on the rumors. "It would not be an SUV," we learned. The representative stressed nothing has been decided yet, so it's still too early to tell precisely when the second model would enter production if it receives the proverbial green light for production. Less than 100 Chiron build slots remain available, but the French company has its work cut out for the coming years. It will deliver the first of 40 planned examples of the Divo in 2020, send the one-off La Voiture Noire to its mysterious new home in 2021, and build the first of 10 Centodiecis (pictured) in 2022. Additional Chiron variants (like the record-breaking 300+) aren't out of the question, either. The idea of an electric Bugatti isn't without precedence. In 1931, company founder Ettore Bugatti built a battery-powered runabout named Type 56 to drive on his property. It was never meant to be a production car, but requests from wealthy clients (including Belgian king Leopold III, who wanted one for his wife Astrid) convinced Bugatti to make 10 examples between 1931 and 1936. Four remain in 2019, including one in original condition that Autoblog got the opportunity to drive in 2018.