Porsche buys stake in Rimac
While Porsche is busy with the final development stages on its Taycan, the company has also been looking at other opportunities to get in on the electrified sports car future.
Far from keeping it all in the Volkswagen Group though, the company has invested outside, taking a 10% stake in the Croatian electric supercar manufacturer Rimac.
Founded in 2009 by Mate Rimac, for a number of years the company was known mainly for its GreyP electric bikes, which were designed by Christian van Koenigsegg, he of the famous Koenigsegg supercars.
But Rimac was always focused on producing electric vehicles and stunned everyone when the company unveiled the Concept One. In March this year he did it again, revealing the concept Concept Two at the Geneva motor show, an electric vehicle that generates a massive 1,427kW, is claimed to hit 100km/h in just under two seconds and reach a top speed of 415km/h. The company is also claiming it can cover 647km on a charge and recharge up to 80% in 30 minutes. Just 150 will be built and shipped to customers in 2019 at a cost of $2m each.
This is the point where we tell you that Rimac has a distributor in SA and that the Concept Two will be here, although what the local cost will be, we are not sure. It does mean the Concept Two will arrive before Porsche’s Taycan though.
“By developing the purely electric two-seater super sports cars, like the Concept One or C Two, as well as core vehicle systems, Rimac has impressively demonstrated its credentials in the field of electromobility,” says Lutz Meschke, deputy chairman of the executive board and member of the executive board for finance and IT at Porsche.
He adds: “We feel that Rimac’s ideas and approaches are extremely promising, which is why we hope to enter into close collaboration with the company in the form of a development partnership.”
THE COMPANY IS ALSO CLAIMING IT CAN COVER 647KM ON A CHARGE AND RECHARGE UP TO 80% IN 30 MINUTES
Porsche has not been specific about what it hopes to get from the deal but Mate Rimac says he is planning to make his company a strategic component supplier for the industry.
“This partnership now is an important step for Rimac on our way to becoming a component and system supplier of choice for the industry in electrification, connectivity and the exciting field of advanced driver assistance systems,” he says.