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Rimac Considering Combustion Engines As High End Buyers Don’t Want Electric Hypercars
Rimac, the Croatian builder of electric hypercars, is painfully confronted with reality: the Nevera is not selling for anything. The brand itself attributes it to the simple fact that most buyers in this top segment simply want a combustion engine.
Rimac announced the production-ready Nevera in 2021. The Rimac Nevera is an electric hypercar with over 1,900 hp that should be able to sprint from 0 to 100 in less than 2 seconds. It was quite impressive, but Rimac still has great difficulty selling the then-announced series of 150 copies. According to big boss Mate Rimac, 50 sales contracts have been signed so far, and he made no effort to hide that this is a disappointment at the Financial Times Future of the Car conference. Rimac attributes the disappointing sales to a changing view of the electric (super) car: “We started developing the Nevera in 2016 when electric cars were still completely cool,” we heard via Autocar. However, sentiment has changed since then, which, according to Rimac, is partly because governments started to promote the EV to people who therefore felt increasingly resistant to the concept.
This is especially true in the top segment where Nevera operates, says Rimac. “Now that electric is becoming more and more mainstream in the lower segments, buyers in the top segment want to distinguish themselves.” Rimac compares it with watches and concludes that ‘old-fashioned’ mechanical watches are also worth much more than the smartest smartwatch. Rimac: “An Apple Watch does everything better than a mechanical watch, but no one is going to pay 200,000 for an Apple Watch.”
And for 2 tons, you certainly can’t get a Rimac Nevera. One copy costs over $2 million. We are not told by Rimac whether this, in combination with the Nevera’s very interchangeable appearance for a hypercar, also plays a role in the sales figures.
No electric Bugatti
We certainly don’t have to feel sorry for Rimac. The company’s primary goal has never been to sell as many cars as possible, but to become a leader in electric powertrains with Rimac Technology. This succeeded: Hyundai and Kia temporarily linked themselves to Rimac, Porsche invested in the company early on, and it was recently announced that BMW is also joining forces with the Croatians. Partly due to that success, Rimac now even owns Bugatti and Porsche. It developed a new V16 petrol engine for that brand and saw no reason to come up with an electric Bugatti. “Because of the brand name, we will certainly be able to sell a few electric Bugattis, but not nearly as many as a Bugatti with a V16.”
The apparent desire of supercar buyers for an analogue experience even leads Rimac to question whether the successor to the Nevera should be fully electric. “Rimac is not about electric; it’s about being able to offer a unique experience.” Various options, including innovative electric powertrains and alternative fuels, would therefore be explored.
