From a $28 million Rolls-Royce with a champagne fridge to a one-off Bugatti in black carbon, these aren’t hypercars — they’re rolling bank accounts

In 2026, a new Ferrari SF90 costs €550,000. A new Bugatti Tourbillon costs €3.8 million. And then there is another league entirely — cars that were never listed, never advertised, and never intended for more than three people on earth.

Here are the four most expensive new cars ever sold, all built in the last six years, all still privately owned.

1. ROLLS-ROYCE BOAT TAIL — ~€23 MILLION ($28M)

The Boat Tail isn’t a car. It’s a commission.

Rolls-Royce Coachbuild built only three, each taking four years and 1,813 completely bespoke parts. The price: $28 million, about €23 million, making it the most expensive new car in the world.

Inspired by 1920s J-class yachts, the rear deck opens like butterfly wings to reveal a “hosting suite” — twin refrigerators set to 6°C for Armand de Brignac champagne, rotating cocktail tables, and a parasol that deploys automatically. The dashboard houses a removable Bovet 1822 timepiece ($1.7m alone) that can be worn or mounted.

Owners? Jay-Z and Beyoncé are widely reported to own the blue first car. Footballer Mauro Icardi bought the second. The third, unveiled at Villa d’Este, was commissioned by a pearl-industry family and finished in a pearlescent paint that shifts like mother-of-pearl.

Engine: a quiet 6.75-litre twin-turbo V12 with 563bhp. Top speed is irrelevant — you don’t drive a Boat Tail, you arrive in it.

2. BUGATTI LA VOITURE NOIRE — ~€16 MILLION ($18.7M)

One car. One customer. One tribute.

Unveiled at Geneva 2019, La Voiture Noire (“The Black Car”) was built to celebrate Bugatti’s 110th anniversary and to recall the lost Type 57 SC Atlantic of Jean Bugatti — a car that vanished in 1938 and would be worth $100m today.

Bugatti built a single example in hand-shaped carbon fibre, all black, with six exhausts and a dorsal fin running the length of the car. Price before tax: €11 million. After tax and bespoke work: about €16-17 million ($18.7m).

Power comes from the familiar 8.0-litre quad-turbo W16 with 1,500hp, but no one has ever seen it driven hard. The owner is rumoured to be Ferdinand Piëch’s family (former VW chairman). Bugatti has never confirmed.

It took two years to build. It will never be built again.

3. PAGANI ZONDA HP BARCHETTA — ~€15 MILLION ($17.5M)

Horacio Pagani said the Zonda ended in 2013. He lied — beautifully.

The HP Barchetta was his 60th birthday present to himself. Only three were made: one for Pagani, one for a client, one for a client. The third sold in 2022 for $17.5 million, about €15 million, making it the most expensive Pagani ever.

It’s a speedster with no roof, no windshield (just a tiny deflector), and rear wheels partially covered in carbon fibre. The 7.3-litre naturally aspirated AMG V12 makes 800hp, sent to the rear through a manual gearbox — a rarity in 2018.

Each car is different: Pagani’s is blue carbon with gold wheels. The body is sculpted like a 1950s race boat, with a leather strap across the bonnet. It’s impractical, loud, and perfect.

Production ended with the Zonda forever. No more will be built, even for €15m.

4. BUGATTI CENTODIECI — ~€9 MILLION ($10.5M)

If La Voiture Noire is art, the Centodieci is a limited-edition tribute you could almost buy.

Built to celebrate 110 years of Bugatti (and the EB110 super car of the 1990s), Bugatti made just ten Centodiecis, each priced at €8 million before tax, about €9 million delivered.

All ten sold instantly in 2019, before anyone saw the final car. Deliveries finished in 2022. Cristiano Ronaldo owns one (white). So does a US collector who keeps it in a temperature-controlled vault in Miami.

Under the wedged, five-hole design is the Chiron’s 8.0 W16, tuned to 1,600hp. 0-100 km/h in 2.4 seconds. Top speed limited to 380 km/h. It’s 20kg lighter than a Chiron thanks to more carbon.

Unlike the one-offs above, the Centodieci is homologated worldwide — you can actually drive it. Most owners don’t.

WHY THEY COST MORE THAN HOUSES

None of these four cars make financial sense. That’s the point.

• The Boat Tail is a yacht that happens to have wheels, built by a company that will assign 30 artisans to you for four years.

• La Voiture Noire is a piece of Bugatti mythology, sold to erase the regret of losing the original Atlantic.

• The HP Barchetta is Horacio Pagani signing his name in carbon fibre and closing the book.

• The Centodieci is scarcity engineered: ten cars, 1,600hp, instant collectible status.

In 2026, a new Rolls-Royce Spectre EV costs €400,000. For the price of one Boat Tail, you could buy 57 of them — or a small island off Sardinia, with a dock big enough for the real boat that inspired it.

The billionaires who bought these cars didn’t choose. They bought both.

Photo Credits: Charles from Port Chester, New York, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons