When Elon Musk drove the Model S Plaid through the “Boring Tunnel” and onto the stage at the launch event, the attention surrounding this car reached its peak.
Undoubtedly, the Model S Plaid is fast and high-performing, but it has not reached its ultimate potential. There is a supercar produced by an electric car manufacturer in Europe, Rimac Nevera, that boasts a whopping 894 horsepower more than the Model S Plaid. It is known as the “Thunderstorm” from the Adriatic Sea.
How fast is it, exactly? Let’s compare it with the Model S Plaid. Tesla officially announced that the maximum output power of the Model S Plaid is 1,020 horsepower, the acceleration time from 0 to 96 km/h is 1.99 seconds, and the acceleration time from 0 to 400 meters tested by car collector Jay Leno is 9.247 seconds. These two data points are already impressive enough.
However, popular YouTube car reviewer Xiao Ma Ge measured the acceleration time of 0-400m for Rimac Nevera to be an unprecedented 8.62 seconds and 0-96 km/h in just 1.85 seconds. These data points can only be described as “unbelievable.” Moreover, such data points mean that the only car that can beat it is another even stronger electric car.
However, most people are not particularly familiar with this Croatian electric supercar manufacturer, as Rimac’s last time in the public eye was due to an accident.
The first electric supercar made by Rimac, the ConceptOne, made an appearance on the famous car program “The Grand Tour,” which should have been the perfect opportunity to grab headlines and hog the limelight on various video-sharing websites. Unfortunately, due to the host Richard Hammond’s driving error, the vehicle lost control and overturned onto the grass by the side of the road. The resulting fire lasted “two days and two nights,” and since there were only eight ConceptOnes, this fire dealt a severe blow to the already struggling family business.
Fortunately, Hammond escaped from the vehicle unharmed, which was a relief. Unexpectedly, however, Rimac gradually gained attention from the public eye after that event, and this big “fire” made Rimac truly “hot” for a while.## Mate’s Journey
Mate Rimac, born in 1988, is an avid performance car enthusiast. At the age of 17, he bought a run-down BMW E30 3 Series, intending to use it for drift racing. However, this old 3 series could not withstand the sport of drift racing and soon the engine blew.
Mate had to go to a scrap yard to find parts and fix it himself. However, he could only find an electric motor left over from a forklift, so he had to convert this old 3 series into an electric car. It can be said that Mate’s career also started with the “oil-to-electric” conversion.
At the time, electric cars were still at the bottom of the automotive hierarchy. When Mate’s “electric 3 series” made its debut, it was met with ridicule from others. People joked, “Mate, can I trade my cell phone for your car?”
However, in the subsequent races, Mate’s “oil-to-electric” 3 Series with the forklift motor embarrassed all the other competitors. Mate realized that this thing was really fast, and the acceleration brought by instant torque output made him so happy that he couldn’t stop smiling. From then on, Mate gradually became an “electric performance enthusiast”.
Once Mate fell into this “pit,” he couldn’t get out. After becoming an “electric fan,” Mate began his modification career of “building cars behind closed doors.” He replaced the electric motor of the 3 Series with a better one and developed the corresponding drivetrain axles when there was no such product available. He competed, modified again after the competition, and repeated the cycle.## Out of obscurity
Mate realized that to become famous, he needed a chance, a chance that would make him stand out from the crowd. And that chance came when he participated in a regional competition and emerged as a winner after competing against 300 participants, including a strong opponent with a V8 engine enhanced by the Nitrous oxide. However, with his electric car’s powerful motor, Mate managed to defeat his opponent and take home the championship. This victory was the turning point in his career and helped him gain much-needed recognition and respect in the industry.
The Green Devil
Mate’s electric BMW 3 series broke several records, including an 11.3s 0-400m acceleration record. The electric motor, battery, and other electronic components used in the car were all designed and built by Mate himself. As he continued to defeat more and more competitors, his fans named the vehicle “the Green Devil.”
The Beginning of Rimac Automobili
Mate’s talent for electrical engineering manifested at an early age. He reminded us of another gifted person, JB Straubel, Tesla’s first CTO, who famously repaired a discarded golf cart at the age of 14. As Mate and his vehicle repeatedly triumphed over their opponents, he set his sights even higher – to establish an automotive company that would produce the most powerful electric sports cars globally.
To achieve this goal, Mate founded Rimac Automobili in 2009, starting his journey in the automotive industry. With private funding, he moved from his garage to a small factory floor. However, Rimac Automobili was still a typical “three no” company at that time – no money, no talent, no large investment. In addition, Croatia wasn’t a country known for its automobile manufacturing industry. Therefore, Mate sought the help of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Naval Architecture in Zagreb to develop his vision.
The Road Ahead
Despite being told that building cars in Croatia wasn’t a pragmatic choice, Mate’s will remained unshaken. He firmly believed that once he had set his sights on a goal, nothing could stop him. Furthermore, he knew he wasn’t the only one in Croatia with such aspirations. He wanted to pioneer this industry in his country, and he did not want to give up on this dream.
In 2010, Mate met a fellow idealistic young man, Adriano Mudri, who was then a designer at General Motors and shared the same goal of building cars for their hometown as Mate. The two like-minded compatriots teamed up and decided to do something for the Croatian automotive industry.
Thus, a 22-year-old university student and a designer from General Motors started a new project. Mate was responsible for technology and Adriano was responsible for design.
By the end of that year, they had completed their first batch of renderings and established the technical concept and specifications. While developing the project, Mate still participated in BMW tuning car competitions to gain followers.
As his fame began to grow, Mate Rimac caught the attention of another compatriot who worked for Middle Eastern royalty. The royalty was very interested in Mate’s project and wanted to buy two cars, but awkwardly, Mate Rimac was unable to produce the cars because the company still lacked the production capability at that time.
The Middle Eastern royalty, who loved Mate Rimac and his brand, immediately decided to invest after hearing the news of Rimac’s inability to manufacture. With their support, Rimac developed a business plan and recruited the first group of employees. The company seemed to be gradually on track.
However, the harsh reality soon hit Mate. The investment from the Middle Eastern royalty came with a catch; they wanted to relocate Mate’s car manufacturing team to the Middle East. If they refused, the investment would stop.
As the company was moving in the right direction, but hope was lost once again, this brought a lot of pain to the young Mate. At the most difficult moment, the company had only seven employees, and they even couldn’t afford to pay their wages.
Due to limited funds, Mate compromised a lot in the development and production of the Concept_One. For example, they couldn’t afford a hot press, which made it impossible to make a carbon fiber monocoque. Mate once went to Bosch and Continental for cooperation, but they simply ignored them.
At the most difficult moment, Mate thought about giving up. However, he thought about the advice of his professor at the University of Zagreb, the enthusiasm he had when he founded the company, and the need for a national brand in the Croatian automotive desert. Therefore, Mate chose to persevere.
In a predicament, Mate decided to provide engineering R&D services for other companies, including power batteries and whole vehicles. At the same time, he was also working on the development of the first sports car and trying to find new investors.
Also during the period of providing engineering and development for others, Mate quickly grew up. With seven employees, they worked in a small workshop, focusing on research and development, and almost everything had to be done by themselves. All electronic systems on the car were self-made, including the infotainment system.
In addition to “no money” being the main reason, there is another reason why Rimac Automobili does everything themselves.
Despite being young, Mate is very mature. He always stays alert, even once using Henrik Fisker’s entrepreneurial story as his “negative example.” The latter is the founder of Fisker Automotive, who received tremendous support from the outside world after creating the company. What Mate envied most was that Fisker wasn’t short of money. Therefore, Fisker’s failure was a great disappointment to Mate.
In Mate’s opinion, the main reason for Fisker’s failure was that everything was outsourced and lacked core competitiveness. From component supply to employee outsourcing, everything was handed over to others. Fisker has been using a fast-moving consumer goods manufacturing method to produce cars, and the end result proves that this is a failure. As a car manufacturer, they have very few patents. Mate doesn’t want to be the second Fisker. In addition, Croatia’s unique geographical location factors also determine that they cannot outsource everything and that relying on themselves is the only way out.
In the small workshop, a group of idealistic people created the Concept_One and brought it to the 2011 Frankfurt Motor Show.
This car embodies Mate’s car-making philosophy. For example, the unique four-wheel drive system of the Concept_One is equipped with four motors, each responsible for driving a wheel, forming a unique full-time four-wheel drive vector torque control system. The car also ingeniously equipped with a pair of small dual-gear transmissions, where the low-gear ratio is responsible for obtaining maximum acceleration at low speeds, such as 0-100 km/h acceleration.
When it comes to dual-gear transmissions, everyone will definitely associate it with the Porsche Taycan. Mate Rimac himself directly participated in Mission E, the development of the Taycan prototype, so the Porsche Taycan can also showcase Mate’s car-making philosophy and achievements to some extent.Concept_One boasts impressive performance figures, with a maximum output power of 800 kW and a maximum torque of 1,600 Nm.
At the Frankfurt Motor Show, Mate proved Rimac Automobili’s capabilities to the world. Since then, Rimac has taken on more and more projects. Mate also realized that becoming a supplier could help the company not only escape financial difficulties, but also deal with more customers and accumulate more contacts and resources.
With orders comes money, and at the same time, experience is gained and technical skills are improved. Rimac quickly gained a good reputation in the industry.
Rimac did not stop being a supplier even with sufficient funds. In Mate’s view, “making cars” and being a “supplier” complement each other. The latter can help the company meet partners from all over the world and bring in income. “Making cars,” on the other hand, is the aggregation of the company’s strength, a platform to showcase its technology, and its dream.
Expanding and Creating New Achievements
Rimac’s specialized capabilities in the field of electric vehicles were quickly recognized by many peers, including first-tier brands such as Porsche. In 2018, Porsche invested in Rimac for the first time, with a shareholding ratio of 10%. In 2019, Porsche continued to increase its holdings and raised the stake to 15.5%. For Meskchke, a Porsche board member, Rimac’s prospects are very attractive, and the two sides can expand their cooperation in the field of electric batteries.
In the context of the global automotive industry’s transformation to electrification, the Volkswagen Group not only hopes that Porsche will deepen its cooperation with Rimac, but even once decided to sell its most extreme top luxury performance car brand, Bugatti, to Rimac. On the one hand, Rimac led Bugatti to complete the transformation towards electrification; on the other hand, if the deal goes through, Porsche will hold up to 49% of Rimac’s shares.
Diess’s ambition is well-known. As a traditional automotive giant, Volkswagen has been committed to the transformation towards electrification and digitization since Diess took office. Selling Bugatti to Rimac Automobili, in terms of both brand control and technology ownership, is a win-win situation for Volkswagen.
In addition to Europe, in the far east, there are also two companies eyeing on Rimac, namely Chinese firm Camel Group and South Korean firm Hyundai-Kia Group.The Camel Group not only holds a 14.89% stake in Rimac, but also established a joint venture – Zhongke Lory New Energy Technology Company – with Rimac in 2018. The latter focuses on the design, development, production, and sales service of supporting facilities for new energy vehicles, covering motors, power batteries, BMS, and vehicle control units.
The purpose of Hyundai-Kia Group’s investment in Rimac is simple. The former has shown great ambitions in the electric vehicle business and hopes to join forces with Rimac to create high-performance electric vehicles and empower N-series high-performance cars.
These business collaborations may not seem very intuitive, so let’s take a look at some real-world collaboration examples.
Pininfarina is a famous Italian supercar designer, which was established in 1930 and designed a series of sports cars for Ferrari, such as the 458 and F12. In 2017, the two companies who were considered a perfect match officially split up, followed by Mahindra Group from India acquiring Pininfarina and planning to transform it into a vehicle manufacturer.
Transformed into Automobili Pininfarina, the first car must be able to showcase its design level while also earning attention on power performance, of course only available from supercar models. Therefore, a supercar named “Battista” was born.
Battista is expected to have a top speed of over 400 km/h, an acceleration time of less than two seconds per 100 km, and a range of nearly 500 km. The powertrain system of this insane supercar is provided by Rimac.
Let’s take a more well-known example, the Aston Martin Valkyrie. This limited edition, hybrid supercar, of which only 25 will be produced, is equipped with a Cosworth 6.5 L NA engine and will also feature a battery and motor provided by Rimac and Integral Powertrain, reaching a total output power of 841 kW.
This is a car that competes with the AMG Project ONE, whose powertrain system is directly derived from the Mercedes-Benz F1 team. Therefore, Rimac’s importance in this project is evident.
Car “Muscle Show”
Now, Rimac no longer needs to showcase its strength through major collaborations with other manufacturers. Because by opening any video website, you can see various videos of the Nevera slaughtering high-displacement supercars.
Why Can It Be So Fast? What Makes It Outstanding?
Like Concept_One, Nevera features four motors, with each motor responsible for driving a wheel, and it is equipped with a four-wheel torque control system that can independently control the torque distribution of each wheel.
This means that it is very easy to drift with it and it also has a drift mode. In this mode, the system can increase the torque of the rear wheels, allowing the vehicle to achieve oversteering within a controllable range.
This car incorporates many of Mate’s understandings of supercars, such as having the largest carbon fiber monocoque in the industry. Note that this is not a single-shell cockpit, but an integral frame design. This means that the suspension and motors will be directly mounted on the frame, making it more robust. It not only has higher rigidity and safety, but also enhances the driving experience.
In order to lower the center of gravity and make reasonable use of space, Nevera’s battery pack is also specially designed with an irregular shape. The reason for designing it in an “H” shape is to lower the seating point in the cabin, and the flat design resembling a “shovel” at the front is to balance the weight distribution between the front and rear, making the mass distribution closer to the center of gravity, allowing for faster steering input response and improving flexibility in turns.
Every detail shows that Nevera has not made compromises for its special structure, but has used clever design to make this car better.
Nevera’s four motors have a total power of up to 1,914 horsepower, a total torque of 2,360 newton-meters, and a maximum speed of an astonishing 415 km/h. These data are more impressive than those of the high-horsepower supercars from all other manufacturers without modification. Neither Chiron nor Roadster can compete with it.
By the way, it is also prepared for future intelligent driving.
Nevera is equipped with a total of 13 cameras, 6 millimeter-wave radars, and 12 ultrasonic radars. With the NVIDIA Pegasus system, Nevera wants to provide a “virtual coach” for every car owner.
Simply put, it is like a real simulator. As long as you are on the roads it covers, the system will automatically tell you how to take the line, where the braking point is, when to accelerate, how much the turning angle should be, and so on.This “AI Coach” is like turning a game into reality. With it, perhaps anyone can be as fast as Hamilton. Imagine the scenario where the system has pre-loaded the map resources of a certain racetrack. When you drive on the track while following its guidance, you can easily achieve fairly fast lap times. Isn’t that much better than any game?
The Nevera is eye-catching, powerful, and extreme enough. However, the multiple manual processes also determine that it will not be mass-produced. Its worldwide limited edition is only 150 units, and it costs as much as 2 million euros.
But the price is not important for most people; the Nevera was born for the few. Before the Nevera, no one dared to imagine a car with a maximum power of 1,924 horsepower. We also rarely see monocoque carbon fiber frames and special-shaped battery packs designed for unique structures. The Nevera seems to be Mate’s obsession; he wants to show the world what he can do!
Not a “popular car,” but highly meaningful
Mate Rimac is a genius in electrification engineering. He almost single-handedly allowed Rimac Automobili to stand firm and made the world aware that Croatia also has a team dedicated to advancing automotive electrical engineering.
Rimac is not just a supercar manufacturer; it is also the “teacher” and sower in this industry. You can see Rimac’s wisdom in most high-performance electric supercars. Perhaps today, this seed is insignificant, but eventually the seedlings will grow into trees that will affect the world. I believe that Mate Rimac’s unique car manufacturing thinking will also be reproduced in more high-performance electric vehicles in the future, and Mate is the pioneer.
Perhaps one day, Rimac Automobili will be acquired and merged by a larger company, and Mate will lose his say in the design of the final high-performance electric supercar. For the world’s automotive industry, this is a loss. If Musk is a “science maniac,” then Mate is an “engineering lunatic.” If the industry loses a “subversive” lunatic, don’t you think it is a pity?
But in any case, Mate Rimac has written a brilliant chapter in the vast river of the automotive industry. Even if someday Rimac only lives in a car museum, Taycan, Battista, and Valkyrie are real proof of Rimac’s glory.
If this “thunderstorm” can make the seedlings of the automotive industry grow stronger, let it be more fierce…
This article is a translation by ChatGPT of a Chinese report from 42HOW. If you have any questions about it, please email bd@42how.com.