43 RIMAC
Rimac is achieving miracles. We become an intern for the day at its base to help build – and drive – its Nevera hypercar
E verybodylooks very young at Rimac. At 34, founder and CEO Mate Rimac is older than many of the electric hypercar maker’s engineers, technicians and managers. Everybody also seems very calm. ‘We hide the stress well,’ smiles Matija Renić, 31, chief of engineering for the Rimac Nevera, as he calmly guides us across the spotless shop floor.
Two lines of vehicles gradually take shape around us, from bare carbon monocoque to sinuously styled complete hypercar. On one side, Pininfarina Battistas – the Nevera’s Italian chassis-share cousin, packed with Rimac running gear and technology – and on the other, the line for the Nevera itself. You might recall Ben Oliver’s drive in this bewitching machine in the July 2021 issue: a road car with twice the power of a modern F1 car that smashes world acceleration records before breakfast (0-62mph in 1.97sec, standing quarter mile in 8.58sec) yet can be driven effortlessly on the road, for far more than 300 miles between charges.
We’re here to experience life inside Rimac Automobili – or one half of Bugatti Rimac, since the two companies’ official intertwinement last autumn. One of the jobs on Matija’s task list is the Chiron successor, on which work is already well underway, but not before he’s finished briefing us. We’re here on work experience: to get an overview of how this remarkable outfit operates, to help assemble a Nevera on the line, and then, finally, to give this €2m, 1888bhp machine a shakedown on the road.
‘This is the fourth place the Nevera has been built,’ Renić explains. ‘I started when there were around 80 people in the company. We could basically fit the engineering team in one room.’ Today, it’s closer to 1700, and Rimac employed nearly 700 new people this year alone. Continually expanding and outgrowing its surroundings, Rimac moved into its latest site in October 2021. A former DIY chain depot, it’s been comprehensively reworked and now has a Silicon Valley start-up vibe on the upper floors, with wood-framed, glass-fronted meeting rooms and open-plan desks. There are yoga mats and beanbags in breakout spaces, too. Not that anybody’s using them; they’re all too busy.
Production takes place on the ground floor, from paint to powertrain to final assembly. Other components are machined and manufactured at the previous, outgrown base, which is still in operation. Rimac creates everything itself. ‘The only parts which come from suppliers are very specialised components like brakes, seats, tyres and glass,’ Renić says. ‘Everything else w
