F1 Champ Rosberg First Rimac BEV Hypercar Customer

Paul Myles

TU-Editor

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5th August 2022

Croatian BEV hypercar maker, Rimac, has delivered its first production-ready vehicle to sustainability champion and former World Formula One Champion, Nico Rosberg.

The Rimac Nevera, which comes with an eye-watering $2.27M price tag, boasts F1 style performance claiming a power output of 1,914hp and capable of accelerating from 0-60mph in 1.85 seconds, to 100mph in 4.3 seconds and can run the quarter mile in a world-record 8.582 seconds. Prior to the car being sent to his home in Monaco, Rosberg made the trip to Rimac HQ in Croatia to see the very latest developments within the Rimac Group first-hand.

Production of the world’s first all-electric hypercar GT is now underway at the automaker’s new facility on the outskirts of Zagreb. Despite its price, the first year of production is already sold out. Almost every major component of the car is designed, engineered, and built at Rimac weeks or months prior to each car being finished, and installed in the last phase of production – the vehicle assembly which takes about five weeks per car.

For car #001, Nico has deliberately chosen an aggressive specification described when he first designed his car as the ‘full Batmobile spec’. With Stellar Black paint, polished Vertex wheels and gloss black brake calipers, it’s billed as the most menacing personality of Nevera possible. The interior is finished in all black Alcantara, with subtle ‘Nico Rosberg’ signature on the armrest plate marking the car 001/150.

Following an 11-year career in Formula One that saw him crowned World Champion in 2016, Nico has embarked on a career as a sustainability entrepreneur and investor in green technologies. He is invested in more than twenty mobility start-ups as well as Formula E, while his all-electric Extreme E racing team – Rosberg X Racing are the Championship winners of 2021 and are leading the current season. In 2019, he founded the Greentech Festival, a global platform for sustainable innovation and lifestyle. As of 2021, the event has been hosted in New York, London, Singapore as well as the city it was first established in, Berlin.

Rosberg said: “Ever since I first met Mate [Rimac] and truly understood the genius behind Nevera, I knew I wanted car number one. For me, this car represents absolutely everything I could ever want. It showcases the very best of innovative electrification technology, bringing it into a car designed literally from the ground-up to be not just incredibly fast – or the fastest – but really great to drive, too. I can’t wait to see what it can do.”

Mate Rimac, CEO of the Rimac Group, added, “When we first started designing the Nevera we set out to build a car that would impress even the best drivers in the world. Nico was on that list, and it’s a great feeling to know that someone who has mastered the most focused and cutting-edge motorsport in the world gets such a thrill from the car that we’ve created. We’re all looking forward to following Nico’s journeys with the Nevera; all of his cars are used and enjoyed, which is exactly what we encourage our owners to do. And if anyone can test the limits of what we’ve built, it’s him. We’re proud to call Nico a friend and the first member of the rapidly expanding Rimac Nevera owner family.”

With the first customer car delivered, uniquely specified Neveras will now begin appearing on the streets of countries all over the world. Only 150 examples will ever be built, sold and maintained by Rimac Automobili’s global network of 25 dealer partners, stretching across North America, Europe, Middle East, and Asia.

— Paul Myles is a seasoned automotive journalist based in Europe. Follow him on Twitter @Paulmyles_