Thank BMW. Or Tesla (the man, not the car company). Or even YouTube. Between them, they helped to kick-start a car maker like no other: Rimac.
For one thing, it’s based in Croatia, a country better known for spotty dogs, medieval HBO blockbusters and some of the world’s best beaches. For another, it doesn’t produce many cars and its CEO was born after the launch of the Ferrari F40 and was once best known for flogging a green E30-generation BMW 3 Series around race tracks.
But Rimac is helping to shape the future of fast cars, specifically those powered by electricity.
That was a point rammed home during a recent visit to the unassuming factory on the outskirts of Croatia’s capital, Zagreb. By the time Ms Google had directed me to the alleged location, I was convinced I was in the wrong spot. Nondescript warehouses are surrounded by the occasional plot of unkempt grass and weeds. It’s far from the no-rock-out-of-place precision of Woking or the grandeur of Goodwood.
But follow the signs around the back of an industrial estate and things turn more professional, with R-badged flags waving in the breeze. A deep blue hue surrounding the top of the blocky building contrasts with the overcast sky and glass panels are peppered with pictures of cars, a Lotus-like stature the only clue to something special within.
The car park is strangely devoid grey sea of Opels, Volkswagens and the occasional Mercedes-Benz, some with a snazzy set of alloy wheels and the occasional splash of yellow or green. A couple of Teslas, with charging cables snaking from them, are the only clues of automotive appreciation.
There’s not a single Rimac, which must make it the only car factory in the world where at least some of the machines produced there aren’t dotted around the car park. Blame it on volumes. Since producing its first vehicle in 2016, Rimac has completed only five full cars. Not five thousand. Not five hundred. Five. It works out to about one car every seven or eight months.
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Rimac is a scam
Rimac is no genius or inventor, with the money which his father Ivan Rimac stole, he buys components from various firms, like - AM Racing, and then says they are 100% R&D in Rimac automobili, and sells them as his own... He is also involved in Panama Papers money laundering.
I am yet to read about an
I am yet to read about an article about an electric car in which its worthiness is not defined entirely by its acceleration and its range.
If there is really no more to talk about those those dry statistics, then there is nothing left.
Enough with the electric super cars...
If we want zero-emission transit (basically the whole idea of electric drive), then we need to popularize EVs. That does not happen with costly sports cars, made for the happy few. Low energy dense battery drive needs to be put in lightweight cars, so we don't need to have them subsidized because they happen to need a lot of them batteries.