Rimac Automobili said that Germany’s Volkswagen Group, which includes the Porsche division and owns a majority stake in Bugatti plans to create a new joint venture called Bugatti-Rimac.
Rimac announced on Monday that it would combine forces with Bugatti to “create a new automotive and technological powerhouse”.
Mate Rimac, who founded the company in 2009, says the venture is an “exciting moment” and calls the combination of the companies “a perfect match for each other.”According to Croatian media reports, Porsche will own 45% of Bugatti-Rimac, while Rimac Automobili will hold the remaining 55%. A deal that is reported to be worth millions of euros; however financial details of the agreement are not published.
Rimac Group current ownership is by Mate Rimac (37 per cent), Porsche (24 per cent), and Hyundai (12 per cent), with remaining investors making up the final 27 per cent.
Bugattis will continue assembling in France, where it was established in 1909. The vehicles will use engines developed and made in Croatia.
“In an industry evolving at ever-increasing speed, flexibility, innovation, and sustainability remain at the very core of Rimac’s operations,” the company said. “Uniting Rimac’s technical expertise and lean operations with Bugatti’s 110-year heritage of design and engineering prowess represent a fusion of leading automotive minds.”
The Croatian car producer Rimac Automobili said that Germany’s Volkswagen Group, (Which includes the Porsche division and owns a majority stake in Bugatti) plans to create a new joint venture. The new company will be called Bugatti-Rimac. In 2018, Volkswagen group‘s subsidiary Porsche Engineering Group GmbH acquired a 10% share in Rimac and made a partnership for its electrification process.
How was Rimac formed?
The idea to form RIMAC was born when the founder of Remac, Richard Hammond crashed his car down a hill while filming for The Grand Tour. REMAC assembles and makes drivetrains, electric sports cars, and battery systems in its factories. REMAC was founded in 2009 by Mate Rimac. Rimac Automobili’s first model, the Concept One, was the world’s fastest production electric vehicle. Richard Hammond started the company in 2007 as a hobby of garage activity of Mate Rimac. He was working all alone and converted his BMW 3 Series (E30) into an electric powertrain. His hard work paid off and gained attention from the press and investors later. When he was 19 years old, Mate Rimac began converting an e-M3 which served as his first test mule: “I owned an old BMW E30 (MY 1984) which I used for drift and circuit races. At one of these races, the gas engine suddenly blew up. At that moment, I decided to try building an EV. After one year or so, the car could drive, but I was not yet satisfied with the result. For this reason, I started to gather a team of experts to develop our components.”
After ten years, Remac is famous for its electric vehicle technology in the car manufacturing business. It has its ultra-limited-edition electric supercars and also provides vehicle components for major car manufacturers around the world. Within its 12th year of existence, Rimac has overgrown. The company started in Rimac’s garage and had just eight employees 12 years ago, now have 850 employees.
It has its headquarters near Zagreb, Croatia, which they moved into in 2013. The company says its ‘dream location’ is currently in the works.
Rimac also works with major car manufacturers and help them to work with their mainstream vehicles. The company like a Kinetic energy recovery system for Aston Martin’s Valkyrie hypercar, it’s the technology that captures energy usually lost through braking and uses it to replenish the battery. They also produce batteries for Koenigsegg and the Seat Cupra e-Racer concept. In 2018, Rimac was acknowledged by the media and public mainly when Porsche acquired a 10 per cent share in the firm to form a development partnership.
Rimac’s impressive list of cars
The company has purely electric cars, and the first model came as a version named ‘Concept One’. They kept it to display at the Frankfurt Motor Show in 2011 and produced models that reached up to customers in 2016. After this model, they also launched the next version called Concept S.
Concept Two model, which is known as ‘C_Two’, was revealed at the motor show in 2018 in Geneva. The car is now being built and has been renamed ‘Nevera’.
