Mate Rimac: the rising star of electric supercars
Mate Rimac cannot help but be distracted. Cars are flying around the corner behind me as they turn on to the hill climb at the racetrack in front of Goodwood House. The deafening roars and the rapt crowd are testament to the power and lure of the internal combustion engine.
Rimac is not, on the face of it, unlike many of the young people watching this event, the Festival of Speed. Twenty years ago he had posters of the fastest machines on his bedroom wall. Yet now, at the age of only 34, he is in the middle of the car industry’s effort to ditch petrol and move to batteries.
At £2m a pop, Rimac Group’s electric Nevera hypercar is one of the most exclusive road-legal playthings the ultra-rich can buy. He also controls Bugatti, one of the most famous marques in the hypercar world, after a dizzying two decades that has seen a childhood refugee from Bosnia rise to near the top of the car industry.
Rimac has been making waves for several years as a maker of eyecatching electric sports cars and a provider of battery tech to long-established names such as Aston Martin, Jaguar and Cupra, part of the Volkswagen group. His position was cemented last July when VW handed him majority control of Bugatti, the maker of one of the world’s fastest cars, the Chiron. In June, SoftBank and Goldman Sachs led a $500m investment in his eponymous company, valuing it at $2bn.
He is even starting to get some celebrity-style recognition. He is becoming a household name in Croatia: when French president Emmanuel Macron visited the country last year, Rimac showed him a Nevera. Some car fans at Goodwood even stop for selfies while he is waiting in the dusty field of
Age 34
Family Married to Katarina.
Education VERN University of Applied Science in Zagreb,
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