Two years ago, I wrote about Rimac Nevera, currently the world’s second-fastest electric vehicle. At the moment, Rimac Automobili’s all-electric, $2.1 million hypercar had just set a brand new standard for EV performance, achieving a top speed of 258 mph and a 0-to-62mph time of just 1.85 seconds. With its 120kWh, 6960-cell battery producing 1914 hp and 2360 Nm of torque, the Nevera in 2022 was independently verified because the fastest accelerating EV production automobile on the planet, with a 0-100 mph time of 4.3 seconds. Only 150 of those cars are planned for production.
The Nevera is a wonderful and dynamic, featuring a custom carbon-fiber body with adjustable aerodynamic settings. The Nevera also includes Level 4 autonomy, with 13 cameras, lidar, six radars, and as much as 12 ultrasonic sensors, in addition to an AI-powered driver coach system that gives feedback to drivers.
So much has modified for the automobile maker in two years, including the automobile losing its lofty fastest title to a Japanese hypercar, Aspark Owl. Does Rimac still have what it takes to capture the affluent global audience and establish itself as a serious player within the EV industry? To reply that query, we must always give attention to the business development and growth that has occurred already.
Let’s start with some of the essential milestones for the corporate: its merger with Bugatti. Rimac Automobili gained a foothold in luxury automobile market in July 2021 when it merged with Bugatti Automobiles, creating Bugatti Rimac d.o.o. (Croatian “d.o.o.” equals to LLC). After the merger, Rimac Group and its CEO Mate Rimac became the bulk shareholder (55% stake) of the brand new company and the only real stakeholder of Rimac Technology, a separate entity dedicated to development, production, and supplying of battery systems, drivetrains and other EV components.
Each brands continued to operate independently — Rimac Automobili remained at its headquarters in Croatia, while Bugatti production continued in France. Bugatti Rimac’s latest global headquarters might be situated throughout the Rimac Campus, a high-tech campus in Croatia that serves because the headquarters for Rimac Automobili and includes facilities for research and development, production, and design. The campus might be the bottom for all research and development of future Rimac and Bugatti hypercars including the Nevera and Concept_One.
In February 2022, and Nevera’s manufacturer formed one other key partnership — this time with D’leteren, a Belgian luxury automobile dealer and a sole distributor of Porsche and Bugatti vehicles in Belgium and Luxembourg. D’Ieteren provides the entire experience in customizing, ordering and handing over Neveras and future Rimac hypercars. Additionally it is answerable for full after-sales support, utilizing Rimac’s in-house-developed diagnostic tools and fully digitized aftersales platform.
In June 2022, Rimac Group raised €500 million in its Series D funding round, led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 and Goldman Sachs Asset Management, with participation from existing shareholders including Porsche
PAH3,
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DRPRY,
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and InvestIndustrial. The vast majority of funds went into further development of Rimac Technology, which has develop into a Tier 1 technology partner to global automotive Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) and has began large-volume series production for Porsche, Hyundai, Automobili Pininfarina, Koenigsegg and Aston Martin.
The remaining of the funds were used to ramp up production capability, complete work on the brand new Rimac Campus, recruit additional 700 team members, open latest offices across Europe and expand latest production facilities.
The primary production-ready Rimac Nevera took to the streets in July 2022, and in October, Rimac Automobili continued its global expansion — this time to North America. Rimac Austin (Texas) is the corporate’s twelfth dealership partner and the primary in america. Currently, Rimac Automobili has a network of 27 partner retailers across the globe, including Canada, South Korea, Netherlands, China, Japan, Mexico, Singapore, UAE and the U.S.
Useless to say, stellar performance of the Nevera hypercar is closely matched by the corporate’s growth and development. Its clear that Rimac Automobili has made significant strides each when it comes to growth and development on the worldwide EV scene. It can be interesting to observe its evolution in the approaching years.
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