Agence France-Press gives recognition to Croatian entrepreneur.
Ever since he showed up in Geneva with his supercar, Mate Rimac is being talked about in the media around the world. The latest article about Rimac’s success comes from Agence France Presse. “His is the name behind the first electric supercar in the world and he is receiving international recognitions for his ingenuity, but for 28-year-old Mate Rimac from Croatia, the story has started as a hobby in the garage”, AFP writes, as reported by Večernji List on March 7, 2016.
Rimac’s interest in technology was obvious when he was in high school. This is when he decided to transform an old BMW which he drove at car races into an electric car. Ten years later, his company Rimac Automobili has become the leading company in the electric car manufacturing business, and his supercar Concept One costs 850.000 euros. “We want to be the biggest in the world in what we do, and we are changing the world”, he told AFP.
This modest entrepreneur, as AFP describes him, was one of the 28 people on the Politico list of people shaping Europe. To master the complex technology of the electric supercars was not an easy task, AFP points out, especially in a small country of 4.3 million people which does not have its own car industry. Rimac founded the company in 2009, when he realized there was almost nothing left of the car he was working on in his garage. “Our first goal was to create the team, and then use the ‘learn as we go’ method to become a company which can actually make something”, the young entrepreneur said.
Concept One was revealed in 2011 at the Frankfurt Motor Show, where no one expected a small Croatian company to present an electric car that can reach speeds of 100 km in just 2.8 seconds. As previously reported by TCN, at the recent International Motor Show in Geneva, Rimac presented the fastest electric car Concept One, now in production, and the prototype of its ‘bad twin brother’ – an even more powerful Concept S.
Many expected that Mate Rimac’s success would take him to the Silicon Valley, Germany or Italy. However, he wants his business to remain in Croatia, the country that is now slowly recovering from recession. “I want to do this here… I’m stubborn. I believe that’s possible and it is going well so far”, Rimac said, adding that he plans to build another plant in Sveta Nedjelja. The new plant means more job opportunities at one of the most popular Croatian companies. Rimac plans to double the number of employees and bring it to 300 by the end of the year. The average age of his employees is 30 and many are young engineers who have just graduated.
Rimac also makes batteries and cells for electric vehicles, as well as the entire equipment, and they hope for a wider reach – including regular cars, airplanes, ships, bicycles and wheelchairs. Their goal is to implement this technology in other industries as well.
