Bugatti rumoured to be building a hybrid successor to Veyron Super Sport.

HYPERCAR BUILDER, BUGATTI, might build a hybrid successor to its 431km/h Veyron Super Sport according to news agency Reuters.

The new model will beat the 431km/h top speed of Bugatti’s Veyron Super Sport, the sources told Reuters. The Veyron Super Sport lost the title of the world’s fastest production car in February to the Hennessey Venom GT.

The two-door model may rely on a 1500hp, 16-cylinder engine and will probably be limited to about 450 cars, the same as the expiring Veyron, two sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters on Wednesday.

“Moving to hybrid propulsion seems like a logical next step” for supercar makers, Stefan Bratzel, head of the Centre of Automotive Management near Cologne told Reuters. “By curbing emissions and boosting performance, they can justify building more of these cars.”

VW acquired the Bugatti brand in 1998 along with Lamborghini and Bentley Motors to create a stable of high-end marques. VW doesn’t break out Bugatti’s earnings in quarterly or annual reporting, but a company source says the brand has been losing money for years on high development costs for the Veyron.

Some 430 of the 450 planned models have been sold, the spokeswoman told Reuters.