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Mavi's business was incredibly simple because his was the only place in the world to buy rocket launchers with a range of over 500 kilometers. Countries like Algeria and Morocco were even pre-ordering the rocket launchers without a prior visit, afraid that if Russia's supply became tight, their orders would be pushed far down the delivery schedule.
"Of course, your government is welcome to visit us in Russia to inspect everything," Mavi responded. For him now, an $850 million arms deal was just standard business. If a client haggled over a smaller amount and didn't end up buying, Mavi honestly couldn't be bothered to negotiate.
Besides the hot business of the Smerch rocket launchers, Mavi had more good news: the Bugatti Veyron supercar he had commissioned Bugatti to develop was finally about to be released!
During its development, the car had attracted an incredible amount of attention and curiosity. Many wealthy young car enthusiasts and journalists had constantly tried to find out from Bugatti how the new concept car would be sold, how many would be produced, and what its performance would be.
But Bugatti kept everything under wraps, citing trade secrets. All they would reveal to the public was that the new car, nearing the end of its development, would set the record for the highest price ever. They weren't just charging a high price; the development and material costs were already sky-high.
"Chairman Mavi, based on our calculations, if we price each Bugatti Veyron at $5 million, we only need to sell 57 units to recover the development costs, as well as the manufacturing costs for those 57 cars. What do you think?" The pricing of the Bugatti Veyron was up to Mavi, so the president of Bugatti needed his approval.
"Let's round it up to a nice, round number and sell each one for $10 million. That way, we only need to sell 28.5 cars to recoup the cost," Mavi decided on the spot.
A supercar development budget of $285 million was absolutely unprecedented. Even famous car companies like Ferrari, Porsche, and McLaren wouldn't dare to invest such a massive amount of money upfront. The reason was that the most expensive supercars at the time were only around $1.6 million.
If the price exceeded that standard by too much, the car might not sell well. After all, the money to buy a single Bugatti Veyron could buy several Ferrari Enzos! Showing off this much would be too expensive, and most wealthy people, even some first-tier billionaires, couldn't handle that kind of pressure.
"$10 million? Okay, I understand, Chairman Mavi..." The Bugatti president was a little uneasy about Mavi's pricing. Although Mavi had mentioned a rough price range before, hearing the actual number made him feel uncertain. He couldn't help but wonder if a car this expensive would even sell.
"Mhm, let me know once you set a date for the new car's launch event," Mavi said, not at all worried about Veyron's sales. The car was positioned as the world's most luxurious and expensive vehicle, and as was customary, it wouldn't be offered in the European market.
(Europe had too many famous supercar manufacturers, and the competition was extremely fierce. When Volkswagen acquired Bugatti, they got burned by the intense European market competition. They were afraid that the car would be too expensive to sell, so they priced it very low, leading to huge losses.)
In the previous timeline, due to a poor marketing strategy, each Bugatti Veyron was sold for only $1 million. This price was barely enough to cover the cost of materials, labor, and taxes, so they weren't making a profit at all.
As a result, Volkswagen sold 357 Bugatti Veyrons and still failed to recover their initial development investment. This meant that they lost money on almost every Veyron they sold. They'd be lucky to even break even someday, not to mention the effects of global inflation. The value of $200 million in 2005 was not the same as in 2017.
Two days later, the Bugatti company, a subsidiary of the Ma V Group, officially announced that it would showcase its newly developed Bugatti Veyron at the Dubai International Motor Show in mid-May 2002.
Upon hearing the news, many wealthy individuals who were eager to see the car prepared to travel to Dubai in May to see what the most expensive car in the world, with all its hype, actually looked like and what its final price would be. Some guessed it would be priced at $3.5 million in North America, while others guessed $4 million. These figures didn't even include import tariffs, consumption taxes, and value-added tax, which would increase the price by at least 50%!
At 10 a.m. on May 16, the famous Dubai International Motor Show, a playground for the world's wealthiest car enthusiasts, finally opened its doors. The cars on display were nothing more than toys for the Middle Eastern elite, who would buy a car simply because they liked it.
As a result, many international automakers went out of their way to please these billionaires, creating all sorts of new and cool concept cars and super-motorcycles. Unfortunately, in 2002, the global supercar industry was still in its early stages. Many of the top ten luxury cars, like the Koenigsegg One:1, Lykan Hypersport, Maybach Exelero, and SSC Ultimate Aero, wouldn't be developed until ten years later. So even if automakers wanted to make a statement, they had to consider their own capabilities first.
As the big boss of Bugatti, Mavi naturally wanted to go to the show to see the market's reaction. To keep a low profile, avoid attention, and enjoy a normal life, he wore a disguise and didn't notify any of his friends in Dubai, including the crown prince, with whom he had a close relationship.
The highest temperature in Dubai in May was around 35 degrees Celsius, while the lowest was 18, making it very comfortable in the morning. Mavi simply wore gray shorts, a black T-shirt, and regular sneakers. Of course, he also brought a pair of sunglasses, a mask, and a hat to hide his identity.
He only brought two bodyguards, who were also dressed in plain clothes and kept their distance. As for the car, he didn't want anything too flashy; a Lamborghini Aventador was enough. After all, Mavi was long past the stage of using a sports car to show off. He was the big boss who invested in and developed a supercar.
Ten minutes later, as Mavi drove a purple Lamborghini Aventador into the Dubai International Motor Show's parking lot, he was amazed to find that nearly a quarter of the supercars there were Lamborghinis, even more than Ferraris. What was even more unbelievable was that among the Lamborghinis, there were two Lamborghini Venenos and three Lamborghini Reventóns.