MALIBU, California – Essentially the most wonderful factor concerning the $2.1 million Rimac Nevera is how straightforward it’s to simply get in and drive.
The Nevera is an electrical hypercar from Croatia. It sits low — very low — to the bottom, and at first look it seems to be like the straightforward act of stepping into it could possibly be sophisticated. However the doorways, which carry up and out type of like a Lamborghini’s, lower into the roof simply sufficient to make sure that I do not bump my head as I drop myself into the driving force’s seat.
Getting underway does take just a little little bit of studying. Gears are shifted with an enormous knob to the left of the steering wheel, the facility seat’s changes are hidden in a touchscreen, and switches for the flip indicators and headlights are mounted instantly on the steering wheel. However as soon as you have bought that down, it is easy to function.
The entire automobile is like that — easy to function — its 1,914 horsepower however.
One of many first issues I observed as we bought underway is that it is easy to see out of the Nevera. That is not a given with automobiles like this. For instance, in Ferraris and Lamborghinis and different low-slung freeway rockets, it is usually a problem to see what’s behind you. However whereas the Nevera is unquestionably low slung, there’s simply sufficient of a rear window to make it straightforward to drive in freeway visitors. Good facet mirrors actually assist with that.
There’s additionally simply sufficient mechanical noise to remind you that you simply’re in a hypercar. There is probably not an engine, however there are 4 electrical motors and so they make mellifluous mechanical sounds because the automobile strikes down the street. Not so loud that I could not converse with my passenger, Rimac’s Ryan Lanteigne, in an inexpensive speaking voice. It’s simply loud sufficient to remind us that we’re driving in one thing particular.
And the Nevera may be very particular certainly — accurately for its simply over $2 million asking worth. You may see why in the video.
The Rimac story
Rimac — pronounced REE-mahtz, roughly — is Croatia’s first and solely automaker. Its 35-year-old founder, Mate (MAH-ta) Rimac, began tinkering with electrical automobiles after he blew the engine in an previous BMW he raced as a youngster. After rebuilding it with an electrical drivetrain — and profitable some races, in addition to — he based Rimac Automobili in 2009, hoping to in the future construct an electrical supercar in his dwelling nation.
Though Rimac the corporate’s first years have been a wrestle, Mate’s timing turned out to be glorious on reflection, with automakers all over the world shifting to impress their fleets.
Rimac’s early prototypes have been spectacular sufficient to draw important investments from Hyundai and Porsche, and it raised another 500 million euros (or about $534 million) final 12 months. These served as the muse of what’s now a thriving enterprise consulting to conventional automakers keen to construct high-performance EVs. Aston Martin and Swedish supercar maker Koenigsegg are amongst Rimac’s shoppers, together with numerous others that the corporate says it may possibly’t but disclose.
The Nevera is called for the fierce summer season storms that roll into Croatia from the Adriatic Sea. (Rimac staff wish to say that neveras — the storms — are “extraordinarily highly effective and charged by lightning,” identical to their automobile.)
The Nevera (the automobile) serves each as a rolling show of Rimac’s EV experience and because the supercar that Mate Rimac has lengthy dreamed of constructing. It is a four-motor design — one for every wheel — with a 120 kilowatt-hour battery pack, sufficient for about 300 miles of vary beneath regular driving situations.
4 motors and a cravat
However there’s nothing regular concerning the Nevera’s energy output. These 4 motors give it a complete of 1,914 horsepower, and a pair of,360 newton-meters of torque — sufficient for a high velocity of 258 miles per hour. Zero to 60 miles per hour takes simply 1.74 seconds, in response to Rimac.
I did not confirm that point with any nice accuracy, however I can attest that such an influence thrust is believable. As pleasant as it’s to drive in visitors, the Nevera is sort of unbelievably fast when totally uncorked. Nevertheless it by no means feels uncontrollable, and that is a major engineering achievement.
Much more spectacular, albeit extra refined, is the way in which these 4 motors work collectively. The automobile’s techniques modify every motor’s energy output 100 occasions a second to make sure optimum dealing with second to second. Or, put one other approach, the Nevera blasts by means of and out of tight corners with out hesitation. That is a trick that different supercars can solely emulate with braking.
It is an much more spectacular trick given the automobile’s weight, round 5,100 kilos. However as onerous because it may be to imagine, that weight is so effectively packaged, with the batteries mounted low and near the Nevera’s middle, that it is hardly noticeable. (After all, the great energy on faucet helps.)
It is a handsome automobile, too, low and radical however not excessive. Civilized. It is well-made, with flawless carbon fiber on the surface and comfy leather-based all through the inside. Croatia would not have a convention of automobile making, however the Nevera does mirror some nationwide delight: Along with the automobile’s title, the intakes on its sides are styled to resemble a cravat, the ancestor of the fashionable necktie — a Croatian invention relationship to the sixteenth century.
The Nevera begins at 2 million euros, or simply over $2.1 million. If that is in your worth vary, converse up quickly. Rimac says it plans to construct simply 150 of them.
