Rimac Nevera goes off-road at new Zagreb HQ

Rimac’s new €200 million factory in Zagreb, Croatia, construction of which is now underway, will see it transform into a high-volume maker of drivetrains and batteries. To mark the occasion, company boss Mate Rimac took a pre-production prototype of the 1,888hp Nevera hypercar for a lap around the building site to test its drifting potential, before being condemned for use in crash tests.

• Rimac’s new HQ is expected to be operational by 2023
• Houses separate facilities for production and research and development
• Rimac claims the base will be carbon-neutral 

Rimac state-of-the art HQ construction underway

The new headquarters is expected to open in 2023 and would feature two separate buildings for research-and-development and production. There’s space for over 2,500 employees and a long list of facilities that will make it a “unique, spectacular place”.

Designed by Croatian architecture firm 3LHD, the headquarters will include a test track, a battery-testing-and-production facility, a command centre, staff relaxation lounges, a restaurant, a gym, a games room, a showroom, a museum, a kindergarten and individual accommodation ‘pods’ to host visitors overnight.

Efforts have been made to ensure that the project – one of the largest of its kind in Europe – blends into the surrounding landscape. A roof garden, an ‘urban swamp’ and parkland complete with grazing farm animals have been included in the plans.

“Just 10 years ago, this company was only me sitting in my garage and thinking about the best ways to develop electric performance vehicles and components,” said founder and CEO Mate Rimac. “We have now reached a point where we need to build our long-term home in Croatia, and that’s exactly what the Rimac Campus is.”

"The Campus is our springboard to the growth plans we have over the next decade and beyond, strengthening us as a niche hypercar maker, a leading tier-one supplier of electric performance technology to the world’s largest automotive manufacturers and an early mover in the worlds of autonomy and mobility,” added Rimac.

As Rimac is part-owned by Hyundai, Kia and Porsche, , provisions have been made for ‘top-secret’ project rooms in which to undertake work for other companies. The base will be carbon-neutral, the company claims.

Rimac Nevera goes off-road

And while Rimac’s new HQ is coming up in Croatia, the Nevera has also been undergoing testing in phased manner. After having been homologated as per European crash test norms, the Nevera is now being readied for US homologation. But before it’s sent for crash testing, Mate Rimac took the pre-production hypercar for an off-road lap around the construction site of the factory. As Rimac himself puts it, “When we are already going to crash it, we thought why not do something with the car we would probably never do, and most of the customers will never do, and have some fun with the car before it goes into the wall.”

Rimac: a brief recap

Founded in 2009, Rimac has built a reputation as a maker of some of the fastest electric hypercars in the world, albeit in extremely low volume. The Concept One made its production debut in 2016, and was followed by the lighter and more powerful Concept S. Recently, Rimac entered into a partnership with Bugatti to form a new company called Bugatti Rimac LLC. You can read more about the merger here.

Rimac’s latest creation – the Nevera – is due to be delivered to customers imminently. In addition, Rimac is also supplying the powertrain to be used in the upcoming Pininfarina Battista.

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