Rimac, the Croatian electric upstart that rose from a garage to become a Bugatti-merged supercar and technology powerhouse, has improved its Nevera hypercar. And along the way, Rimac managed to squeeze more power into it.
Rimac unveiled the Nevera R, an all-electric hypercar designed to push the performance limits of its predecessor, on Friday during The Quail, a motorsports gathering during Monterey Car Week. The result: a 2,107-horsepower hypercar that can reach a top speed of 217 mph — or 256 mph under Rimac’s supervision — and accelerate from zero to 60 mph in 1.74 seconds. The company has not released an estimated range for the vehicle.
These specs seem to support Rimac’s aim for the R in the new Nevera R’s name, which stands for radical, rebellious and relentless. The Nevera R’s larger wheels at the rear, extremely low nose, tall fixed rear wing and carbon fiber structure complete the “hey, in case it wasn’t clear already, this is a hypercar with badass performance” package.
Debuting in Nebula Green, the Rimac Nevera R puts the spotlight back on Rimac – and the ever-evolving and growing company.
However, the new electric car should be able to do more than just race off the assembly line. Rimac Automobili founder Mate Rimac explained in a phone call before the launch that the Nevera R, which is equipped with four electric motors, modern ceramic brakes, a new 108 kilowatt-hour battery, new Michelin Pilot Cup tires and all-wheel torque vectoring, is designed for cornering.
“Nobody missed the Nevera’s performance,” said CEO Mate Rimac. “But we decided to squeeze a little more out of the car than we could. And of course, give it a more aggressive, even more interesting design than before.”
Rimac will produce only 40 Nevera R units, with a base price of 2.3 million euros ($2.5 million at today’s exchange rate).
For comparison, the original two-seater Nevera has 1,914 horsepower, accelerates from 0 to 100 km/h in 1.85 seconds, and has a top speed of 416 km/h. When Rimac Automobili began production of the original $2.5 million Nevera in 2022, it was faster than any other production car with those specifications.
The Rimac Automobili brand was founded in 2009 by Mate Rimac, a 21-year-old student at the time. In 2011, he launched his first fully electric hypercar, the Concept One. The Concept Two followed and eventually evolved into the Nevera.
When the Rimac Nevera was unveiled in 2021, Rimac was a unicorn startup that had also set up a technology subsidiary to supply advanced EV components to other automakers, such as backers Hyundai and Porsche. That same year, Rimac announced a merger with Buggati, the legendary French supercar maker.
The company has a much more complex structure than when it started in Mate Rimac’s hobby garage. Bugatti-Rimac, which produces hypercars with combustion engines, electric drives and hybrid drives, is majority owned by the Rimac Group and 45% by Porsche. Under Bugatti-Rimac is Rimac Automobili, the brand for EV hypercars. The Rimac Group, in which Mate Rimac still holds the majority, also includes the subsidiary Rimac Technology and Verne, a newly founded robotaxi company.
“As you can see, the spectrum is quite broad,” says Mate Rimac, explaining the structure of the company. “So the days here are not very boring. So much is happening.”
The Nevera R’s launch also comes at a time when the electric vehicle market is in turmoil. While electric vehicle sales continue to rise around the world, US and European automakers are struggling to offer affordable electric vehicles to customers who are shunning the more expensive luxury models. A bevy of electric vehicle startups that entered the industry several years ago in a bid to match Tesla’s success have dwindled to just a few.
Rimac, whose mission is different from those who want to sell large quantities of cheap electric cars, is one of the few success stories. “Simply making a normal car electric is not enough,” says Mate Rimac. “It has to be better, it has to offer something unique. And in our case, the customers we talk to are basically collectors.”
