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Mate Rimac is a beacon of hope for several car companies - at just 33 years old, he already has 1,000 employees.
Photo:
Ivan Lackovic / Rimac
The company is working on the most powerful electric car in the world and aims to make corporations such as VW or Hyundai-Kia fit for the fight against Tesla - but a charging socket cannot be found in the Rimac Automobili visitor car park in Sveta Nedelja.
The start-up has probably grown too fast for that, except for the parking lot, which is being moved further and further outside, the cables are not yet sufficient.
Founded almost exactly ten years ago in the neighboring village of Samobor - in a garage of course - Rimac has now hired its thousandth employee. The workforce is spread across half a dozen locations in the vicinity of the Croatian capital Zagreb. But the offices, laboratories and assembly halls are far too cramped. Even without corona rules, it is difficult to keep the distance - even in the simple headquarters, which, with its two floors without dazzling glass or aluminum facades, is less impressive than some car dealerships.
The 33-year-old company boss Mate Rimac is one of the most sought-after men in the auto industry and is celebrated as the "Elon Musk of the Balkans", based on the Tesla boss.
Managers like VW boss Herbert Diess or Hyundai board member Chung Eui-sun hope that the young electrical specialist will provide them with the know-how and components they need in the race against the world market leader for electric cars from California.
They expect a lot from Rimac: It should bring the profitable concept of the super sports car into the new era and develop or refine battery controls, power electronics and other components.
The calculation: Rimac can just get started and use freedoms in the start-up that hardly exist in corporations.
Developers often discuss ideas there until they are out of date or petered out.
In ten years from nobody to the beacon of hope in an industry - that is already rather unusual.
The fact that Rimac also comes from Croatia makes the story even more surprising.
Since the end of the Yugo small car in 2008, the entire former Yugoslavia has been a pretty blank spot on the world map of the automobile; there are even only a few suppliers there.
However, a certain Nikola Tesla was born 200 kilometers south of Sveta Nedelja, inventor of alternating current and namesake of Elon Musk's company.
"Anyone who wants to do something for the world should rather stop eating meat than get into an electric car."
Rimac appears very different from Musk - at least not as someone who wants to save the world with electric cars.
He is enthusiastic about the Stromer because of their driving dynamics and at the same time raves about his BMW M5, which is parked in front of the headquarters.
Rimac believes that the electric car is not the solution to our climate problems, even though he has made it so far with e-car technology.
"Anyone who wants to do something for the world should rather stop eating meat than get into an electric car," says the vegan.
And while he's provoking so beautifully, he's also campaigning for atomic energy.
Without this, an electric revolution cannot be made climate-neutral.
"Germany is currently shooting itself in the knee with its energy transition," he says and shakes his head.
It is much better to deal with a comparatively small amount of nuclear waste than with billions of tons of CO₂.
Career start as a tinkerer
Rimac dreams of a world of autonomous vehicles - controlled by its software, so that taxis or Ubers are no longer without passengers.
"That is the real key to lower emissions." In Rimac's eyes, private cars are becoming a hobby, like riding horses.
"Nobody needs them anymore to get from A to B."
Somewhat contradicting all the clear, often controversial words is the appearance of the Croatian. He appears rather shy in the everyday conference room, in a training jacket that almost everyone in the house is wearing. Acknowledges with a smile that he failed with the projector. Then sits tight around the laptop with his visit, despite the pandemic. A Powerpoint presentation with the curriculum vitae of the start-up millionaire is running on it. Is that just vain business acumen? Or another kind of subtle understatement?
What can be seen on the screen is more reminiscent of the career of a tinkerer than of technology investor Elon Musk.
Born in what was then Yugoslavia, fled to Frankfurt with his parents in the Balkan War and returned to Croatia as a teenager, Rimac began his career as a rather mediocre student at an inventor Olympiad of the kind "Jugend forscht".
Electric motor from the forklift
So he tells in fluent German how he presented a blind spot warner and, above all, a kind of data glove.
It should record finger movements and serve as an input instrument.
At that time, there was still no talk of touchscreens, as was the case with smartphones and tablets, says Rimac.
The idea brought him to the World Cup in Korea and brought him a second place there, he says.
At the time, Rimac developed an almost idolatrous love for cars and, after his 18th birthday, tried his hand at driving local circuits and drift races.
When the engine of his bright green three-series BMW blew up, he came into contact with electric drives for the first time.
"Because I couldn't afford a V8 engine from an old M3, so I installed the electric motor from a forklift."
He soon got no further with the forklift engine.
After a few painful defeats, he built in more and more of his own components and spent nights tinkering in the garage.
Ultimately, Rimac became the king of drift races and drag strips, defeated increasingly potent opponents, set a series of Guinness and Fia records and made his "Green Monster" a YouTube star.
Videos like this apparently aroused the curiosity of a few car-crazy Arab investors: They encouraged Rimac to build the fastest and most powerful electric car in the world. That was the starting signal for the Concept One vehicle, which had been haunting his head for several months. "We agreed in spring 2011 that the car should be ready six months later for the IAA." Rimac delivered and it made him proud.
“As a child, I made pilgrimages to the trade fair for years, and suddenly I was an exhibitor,” he remembers the premiere of the up to 900 kW strong and 300 km / h fast C1, which converted electroskeptic and BBC legend Jeremy Clarkson himself .
But the Arabs would have forced him to move including the production to the Emirates.
When he refused, the funding had failed, Rimac remembers this low blow in his career.
In retrospect, however, it actually turned out to be a blessing, says Rimac today.
He learned to market his know-how, landed his first development contracts and began his ascent as a supplier, which has taken him to the boardrooms of large corporations.
Nevertheless, he built his super sports car on the side - and at least sold eight times for prices of around one million euros.
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Rimac C2: The car should have almost 2000 hp and a top speed of over 400 km / h - it would be the king of the electric hypercars and perhaps the midwife of a new Bugatti.
Photo: Rimac
Ten years later, the second generation of his electric hypercar is about to go into series production, with over 1400 kW and more than 400 km / h, project code C2.
Rimac plans to manufacture up to 150 of these - per year.
He also has a deal with the design company Pininfarina, for the Italians he builds the technically almost identical Battista.
As a supplier, Rimac caused a sensation in the industry because of deals with Hyundai and the VW Group, and the company also supplies components to Koenigsegg and Aston Martin.
Porsche has just increased its stake in its company from 15 to 24 percent.
The rumor persists that Rimac will soon take over Bugatti and make the most exclusive of the VW brands fit for the future with an extreme electric car.
Role as a savior
If his shareholders give him a free hand, Rimac could save many niche manufacturers, says the Berlin automobile analyst Matthias Schmidt: “While large-scale manufacturers are investing insane sums in pure electric car platforms for the mass market, the statutory network surrounding niche manufacturers is slowly closing in. The exemptions that have so far ensured their survival beyond the CO2 limit values will expire «, the expert is convinced.
Smaller manufacturers are not in a position to invest the necessary money. They looked for outside help so they wouldn't break the limits. With its electrical solutions, Rimac “could become the first choice - especially for luxury and sports cars,” says Schmitt. Manufacturers such as Koenigsegg or Aston Martin would then optimize a Rimac platform according to their ideas. As a brand, however, the Croatian specialist could fall by the wayside, says Schmidt.
The automotive economist Stefan Bratzel from the Bergisch Gladbach School of Business sees it differently.
He praises Rimac's hybrid strategy, which Tesla also once pursued, as promising: "He's making a name for himself with his electric hypercar, proving his skills, and in the best case making money and still not hurting anyone with these numbers," says the professor .
At the same time, Rimac has access to corporations as a partner.
Bratzel calls this potentially profitable coexistence “customer relationships instead of competition”.
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Porsche boss Oliver Blume (left) has bought into Rimac and has just increased the proportion of Swabians from 15 to 24 percent.
Photo: Rimac
Mate Rimac seems comfortable in this role. "In any case, the times when I couldn't sleep peacefully for a night are long gone," he says with a smile, referring to the crisis in his company almost ten years ago. Rimac has solid plans for the next three to five years, after which there should be time for its vision of autonomous transport.
The lack of staff and space causes him problems.
It is not easy to find car experts in Croatia - especially those who are familiar with electric drives, batteries or power electronics.
For professionals from abroad there are more attractive places than Sveta Nedelja, admits a company spokeswoman.
It's just a provincial town and nearby Zagreb doesn't really count as a metropolis.
Nevertheless, according to Forbes, Rimac Automobili is the most international start-up in the country with employees from 35 countries.
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Following the example of Apple, Rimac is currently planning its own campus for production and development - with a museum and organic farm.
Cost point: 200 million euros.
Photo:
Rimac
Rimac wants to attract more specialists with a new headquarters that is somewhat reminiscent of the Apple headquarters in Cupertino. A museum is also to be built there, with a place of honor for the green monster, as well as a hotel and an organic farm that supplies the canteen. Rimac should easily raise the 200 million euros for the magnificent building, after all, a private jet lands in Zagreb several times a week, with a delegation from Wolfsburg, Stuttgart, Tokyo or Seoul on board.
The more the old corporations integrate Mate Rimac, the more his flexibility, his speed and his freedoms are in danger, says automobile economist Bratzel. Managers like Herbert Diess or Porsche boss Oliver Blume are well advised not to put Rimac on a short leash. So that he can still let off steam a bit - like in his very wild times.