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.  A wave of productivity means another three are in various stages of construction while I’m there, body panels stacked and awaiting fitment to complete the planned run of eight Concept_Ones. The car is a two-seater with batteries lining its floor and an electric motor on each wheel. Although tyres and generic components are sourced from suppliers, most components – including air-con units, lights and bumpers – are produced in-house.  The result is a sleek sports car that’s good for something north of 1200bhp. Company founder Mate (pronounced ‘mah-tey’) Rimac describes it as “an electric car built by petrolheads”, which gives an idea of his headspace. For the trainspotters, there’s even a hint of Croatian design – Mate is intensely patriotic – with the air intakes that hug the doors being tapered like a necktie, a fashion item invented by the Croatian army.  It’s the upcoming C_Two that is planned to send more of a jolt through the hypercar world. The philosophy doesn’t change – big electric power in a two-seat sports car – but the execution does.  “The Concept_One was more of a learning project for us… The C_Two is light years away,” says Rimac marketing chief Marta Longin as we wander the clinically clean facilities that are eerily devoid of cars.  Claimed to make 1888bhp, it promises new levels of electric performance, blitzing the 0-62mph sprint in 1.97sec and hitting a claimed 258mph top speed. That it boasts a WLTP-certified range of 342 miles reinforces the breadth of engineering beneath an active-aero body constructed of what’s claimed to be the single largest piece of carbonfibre on any production car. The planned production run is 150 units at a rate of three a month – still tiny numbers, even in the world of hypercars. It will take more than four years to build the lot.  But it’s not complete cars that are the financial heartbeat at Rimac, as Mate learnt not long after registering it in 2009. He describes the brand as “helping other companies to build interesting products and electrified, connected, smart vehicles”. As Longin describes it, the vehicles are “a perfect showcase of what we can do”.  Tracing Rimac’s history shows it to be radically different from other brands. There was no bolshie concept car sprouting plans to knock Ferrari off its pedestal. No gazillionaire investor promising to shovel copious funds through the back door until success was guaranteed. And no mysterious alliance with a tech giant intent on showing car makers how to build cars.  The one area where Rimac did follow a more traditional path was in almost going broke. A Middle Eastern sheikh initially promised investment money but the deal went sour. Mate was more visionary than finance guru. “We had no money, absolutely no money,” says Longin of those early years, recounting the time the electricity was cut off (somewhat of an issue for a manufacturer of electric vehicles).  She blames it on various factors, including no
Origin: How Croatian supercar firm Rimac is shaping the future of fast cars