The Bugatti Chiron Super Sport costs approximately $5 million in Australia, and close to a third of that figure is Australian tax. This article is about where the money actually goes, what the car is, and what owning one here involves.
What the Chiron Super Sport Is
The Chiron Super Sport is the top-speed variant of the Chiron family. The standard Chiron produces 1,103 kW from Bugatti’s quad-turbocharged 8.0-litre W16. The Super Sport adds revised turbochargers, new intercoolers and modified fuel injection to reach 1,176 kW (1,600 PS), along with a longer tail and reworked aerodynamics. The bodywork is extended by 250 mm purely to improve high-speed stability.
The 0-100 km/h time is 2.3 seconds. Production cars are electronically limited to 440 km/h. The 490.5 km/h figure often quoted was set in 2019 by the Super Sport 300+ prototype, a specially prepared development car on a closed track, not a production model.
Only 100 were built.
Where the Australian Price Comes From
Understanding why a Chiron Super Sport costs around $5 million here means understanding the stack of costs that turns a European list price of roughly EUR 3.2 million into an Australian drive-away figure.
The stack runs like this: ocean freight of $8,000 to $15,000, Australian customs duty at 5 per cent (approximately $265,000 on the base price), GST at 10 per cent, and Luxury Car Tax at 33 per cent on everything above the threshold.
That is why the Chiron costs 40 to 60 per cent more in Australia than it does in Europe. It is a structural feature of the Australian exotic car market, and the Chiron illustrates it better than almost any other car because the numbers are large enough to see clearly.
Australian Luxury Car Tax
LCT applies at 33 per cent to the amount above the threshold, which is $80,567 for the 2025-26 financial year. On a $5 million purchase price that produces an LCT liability of roughly $1.62 million on its own.
The tax is paid by the importer and is normally already inside the quoted Australian price. It is worth understanding anyway, because it explains most of the gap between what the car costs in Europe and what it costs here.
The W16 Engine
The Bugatti W16 is not a V16, and the distinction matters.
A V16 has two banks of eight cylinders arranged in a V. The W16 has four banks of four, effectively two V4s joined at the crankshaft. That packaging allows sixteen cylinders to fit in a shorter engine than a conventional V16 would need. Each bank has its own camshafts. The result is 16 cylinders, 64 valves, four turbochargers, ten radiators, and a dry-sump lubrication system needed to manage oil flow under extreme acceleration.
Torque is 1,600 Nm, available from 2,000 rpm through to 6,000 rpm. What that delivers in practice is a uniform surge with no peak and no plateau, simply a relentless push that starts immediately and continues until the electronics intervene. Nothing else in the road car world feels quite like it at full throttle.
The Grand Touring Purpose
The Chiron Super Sport was built as a grand tourer, not a track car. The 100-litre tank gives roughly 500 km of range at normal road speeds. The air conditioning works, the infotainment works, and the cabin is finished in hand-stitched leather and aluminium to a standard that matches anything from Rolls-Royce or Bentley.
That grand touring character makes it, paradoxically, more usable in Australia than some far less extreme cars. The suspension is tuned for distance, the seats are genuinely supportive over long hours, and the cabin cooling copes with an Australian summer.
Running Costs in Australia
There is no Bugatti dealership in Australia. The nearest authorised service point for Australian cars is Singapore, so servicing means either shipping the car or arranging for authorised technicians to travel here. That travel is a real part of the bill.
Indicative annual costs for moderate use:
- Insurance, agreed value: $70,000 to $150,000
- Servicing, including technician travel: $40,000 to $100,000
- Tyres, Chiron-specific Michelin: approximately $25,000 to $35,000 per set
- Fuel: 98 RON required, roughly 22 to 24 litres per 100 km
Total annual running cost for moderate use lands somewhere between $180,000 and $320,000.
What You Are Actually Buying
Every component is hand-built and assembly takes months per car. The level of craftsmanship in materials and fit is matched by nothing else in automotive production, and the interior is a genuine artisan product rather than a marketing claim.
Beyond the craftsmanship you are buying exclusivity. One hundred cars globally, and an allocation process in which Bugatti approves the buyer rather than the other way around.
On values, standard Chirons now trade above their original retail prices. With only 100 Super Sports built, the expectation is that they follow the same path, though that is a market expectation rather than a guarantee.
Verdict
The Chiron Super Sport at roughly $5 million in Australia makes sense for a specific buyer: someone who wants the most extraordinary engineering available, values rarity above nearly everything, and understands that the ownership experience is as much about what the car represents as what it does on a road.
No other road car combines 1,176 kW, 440 km/h capability, W16 engineering and genuine grand touring comfort. As the last W16 Bugatti, with the Tourbillon moving to a naturally aspirated V16 with hybrid assistance, the Super Sport’s significance will only become clearer as the Tourbillon era gets under way.
For everyone else, the question answers itself.
Where this came from
Every changeable figure above, what it was checked against, and when.
Figures are correct as at the dates shown. We re-check cars on sale every three months and tax thresholds every July. How we check our facts.
Side-by-side specs, Australian pricing and performance figures for every exotic and luxury car we cover.