Winds Of Change

On track with the Rimac Nevera, the fastest series-production electric car in the world

WORDS: JEREMY TAYLOR

According to Rimac (pronounced in Croatia “rim-atz”), its Nevera hypercar was named after “a quick, unexpected and mighty Mediterranean storm that races across the open sea off Croatia”. The headline figures that accompany the Croatian firm’s electric record-breaker justify the lofty epithet, but having toured the Rimac factory and spent time with its employees, it’s obvious that the name is as applicable to the company itself — and especially its founder, Mate Rimac.

The starting point for all this is visible in a section of the factory called the ‘gallery’, where various crash-tested prototype Neveras share space with Mate’s own eclectic collection of vehicles. He has a few Ferraris and even a Mercedes SLR-McLaren, plus a Bugatti Chiron, of course (Mate is CEO of Bugatti Rimac), but he’s clearly a fan of BMW M cars, too. And there among the perfectly presented cars is the unmistakable body shell of the first-generation BMW 3 Series, the E30.

This is the car in which Mate first mixed his proven electronics expertise (from a very young age) with his love of motoring, all in his parents’ garage at home. The story goes that an engine failure prompted him to power the BMW with electric motors sourced from forklifts. His fellow trackday enthusiasts initially made fun of the car, but over time he developed his own electric components and the “Rimac BMW e-M3” went on to set five Guinness and FIA world records for the fastest accelerating electric car. That was 2011, and Mate was just 23, but he already envisioned creating a ground-breaking electric supercar, starting with a blank sheet of paper. The Rimac ConceptOne was born that year, built by Rimac’s eight employees just in time to present it at the Frankfurt motor show.

To finance the project, the company worked on EV technology for other car makers, and started turning a profit in 2013. Two years later, the team numbered 100 people; in 2017, that jumped to 250 and the following year they unveiled the C Two (which became Nevera) at the Geneva motor show.

In the gestation period from that display car to the first customer-ready Nevera (2016 Formula One World Champion Nico Rosberg’s, no less), the work of Rimac Technology expanded at pace. Rimac nonchalantly confirms that by 2020 it was “working with almost every single OEM in Europe” with a team of 850 people. The following year, Rimac Automobili and Bugatti merge, the Nevera is ready for production and the firm reveal plans for a massive state-of-the-art ‘Campus’ facility near Zagreb in Croatia.

The day we arrive at the current main production facility there are approximately 1,500 employees and a desire for many more.

At the centre of this whirlwind of activity sits the Nevera, an electric hypercar that comes with some profoundly serious numbers: 1,888bhp, 1,725lb ft of torque, 0-100km/h in 1.85 seconds, a 412km/h top speed and a $2.2m price tag.

Following an eye-opening tour of the production facility, we were tossed the keys for a few hours at the wheel, taking in slippery back roads, a test track and even an opportunity to try out a rather special Drift mode.

Given the performance and the hypedup capability of the Nevera, it’s quite a restrained piece of exterior design. It follows the expected hypercar norm in terms of a low and wide stance, but it’s not particularly showy or dramatic when parked up.

That’s especially the case if the rear wing is in its lowest position. It forms part of a sophisticated active aerodynamics system that adjusts four different elements — two in the nose, two at the back — to suit a wide variety of situations.

At one extreme, low drag is desirable to extend the range between charges, as it is to achieve the car’s top speed, while at the other, downforce helps with high-speed stability and cornering. The system even reacts to use of the brakes, acting as an air brake.

In terms of style details with meaning, take a look at a side view of the Nevera and you’ll notice a long shape that effectively runs from the nose and narrows ahead of the rear wheels. This references the cravat, which originated in Croatian military in the 17th century.

Aft of the doors on each side are three LED lights that call to mind Le Mans racers. Buyers can specify colours of a flag for these, for example, but they can also change appearance depending on the driving mode selected.

More theatre is brought to the Nevera’s appearance by the use of butterfly-wing doors. They’re surprisingly heavy to operate, though they do incorporate a sizeable section of the roof and side sill, which makes getting in and out a cinch.

The two-seat cabin is on the snug side and the design is quite minimalistic, but it’s no stripped-out racer. The large battery pack is H-shaped, allowing the seats to be mounted as low as possible, while a low-set windscreen base allows for good visibility, too. The positions of the seats, and indeed the steering wheel, can be electrically adjusted via the central touchscreen.

This is a proprietary system from Rimac running its in-house infotainment software, and it allows access to a bewildering array of data and customisation of the driving experience.

Yet Rimac has cleverly paired this modern interface with chunky analogue knobs to easily allow alteration of the drive settings on the move. Depending on function, they can be turned, pushed or pulled, adding a wonderfully tactile interface with the car.

This is officially the fastest seriesproduction electric car in the world – though apparently, customer cars are limited to 353k/ph by default. On the way to that, it covers the standing-start quarter mile in 8.58 seconds. That makes it the fastest-accelerating production car on the planet according to Rimac –regardless of what powers it.

Later in the day we get to push the Nevera to its limits on a test track and to discover the true character of the car. It is breath-takingly quick on track. It takes a few laps to realise that the Nevera devours straights so quickly that you need to rethink the braking points, as your brain can’t quite comprehend what’s happening. Even so, in those first sighter laps it’s clear that the car is quite forgiving of any ham-fistedness, and it is utterly stable.

When you get to grips with the speed and the immense performance on tap, it rewards with keen responses and you soon learn where you can take liberties and how to extract the most from the car — and yourself. Dialling back the torque vectoring system is illuminating, as it reveals how much work the car is doing for you, especially on the entry and exit of corners.

And anyone who dismisses sporty electric cars for their lack of an evocative noise needs to hear the Nevera at work. There’s no aural trickery at work here, just four electric motors and their gearboxes rotating rapidly. It’s mechanical and exciting in a totally new and different way to what has gone before.

Rimac, however, didn’t set out to produce a car for one-off acceleration runs and track days; the Nevera was designed to be used on the road over long distances, too. The 120kWh battery pack is good for 485 kilometres under WLTP testing conditions and it has been futureproofed with the ability to charge at up to 500kW.

Rimac has committed to producing just 150 examples of the Nevera for sale and first deliveries began in the summer of 2022. Though the first two years of production are accounted for, there are cars still available to order.

Would-be buyers shouldn’t be distracted by the huge performance and the world records that are part and parcel of this car, as there’s so much more to it than that. It is an incredibly exciting piece of automotive technology and art rolled into one, but one that can be driven long distance comfortably.

What’s more, it’s only the starting point for the Croatian company, one that is on a trajectory that is just as beguiling. We can’t wait to see what Mate Rimac does next.