The arrival of Rimac to Rijeka is additionally interesting due to the fact his company received an investment of 30 million euros from the Chinese Camel Group and increased its value to 200 million euros.
On the first day of December 2017 began a strong economic wind at Rijeka University. That day a contract was signed by University Dean dr. Snježana Prijić Samadržija and psychologist Aco Momčilović, director of human resources for the development of the now famous company Rimac Automobili from Sveta Nedelja, on the use of supercomputer ”Bura” whose capabilities are indispensable in the completion of the development of the new vehicle. The vehicle is Mate Rimac’s second production vehicle named Concept Two, to be presented as one of the biggest global hits at the Geneva automobile show, on March 8, as Novi List reported on January 7, 2018.
The vehicle is predicted to have fascinating characteristics – powered by 1.384 HP, maximum speed of around 400 km/h and a price climbing to 10 million kuna – and can be sold in ten times larger volume than the current Concept One, adding additional acceleration to the development of Rimac Automobili. Although a tenfold increase sounds gaudy, such growth should not be difficult to achieve as Concept One sold only a dozen. Add to this the production capacity of Concept Two will be twenty per year.
The arrival of Rimac to Rijeka is additionally interesting due to the fact his company received an investment of 30 million euros from the Chinese Camel Group and increased its value to 200 million euros. Camel Group was founded in 1980, and specialises in battery production, including the most modern ones for electric vehicles.
They employ just under six thousand workers in China, with businesses all over the world. Their investment earned them a 15 percent share in Rimac Automobili, indicative for various reasons. Primarily, Croatia is a state of complex regulations, rather unattractive to foreign capital, so investors need additional tenacity to break through bureaucratic blockades, while on the other hand Croatia is not at the forefront by any other benefits for investors – tax levels, price of labour, land…
What is additionally intriguing, Rimac is competing for another 20 million euros of EU funds, enough to build a new factory. The plant would produce electrical components, Rimac’s current success. He is a globally renowned person tied with friendship to, for example, Christian von Koenigsegg, a Swedish nobleman who also produces fast and extremely expensive sports vehicles whose base price, without taxes, reaches 10 million kuna. The two are connected by the same passion, and are working together successfully as the Sveta Nedelja plant produces batteries and other parts for automobiles produces in the Swedish Margretetorp.
Where will the 50 million euros be invested, where will the new Rimac factory grow? In every conversation he points out it will surely be Croatia. Rimac did not only shock the world with his creation, but also his country of origin. A Croatian electric super automobile?! We know of the wonderful Croatian coastline, great footballers and other athletes, but Croats making cars… incredible. But proving this impossible Croatia is possible in the domain of the most sophisticated industry was Rimac, with the doors of the global automobile stage opening up since 2011. An American dream in Croatia!
Let us return from history and back to the issue: is there space for a greenfield investment of 50 million euros in Rijeka or the area? There is no answer yet, but could Bura be on to it? Current available info points to Rimac’s wish for it to be close to the current location in Sveta Nedelja near Zagreb. However, until the contract is signed, why wouldn’t it be Rijeka? After the arrival of strategic partners from Poland, the new surge for Rijeka Port is evident, while the Rijeka Dean and Rimac’s HR director pointed out on December 1 that Bura is only one of the segments of cooperation between the company and Rijeka, and a battery factory would be a great spring board, a catapult for a new industrial surge for Rijeka, based on the knowledge concentrated at Rijeka University.
The number of employees at Rimac Automobili is nearly at 300, but considering the large investments, by 2022 there could be around a thousand, and most of them are young, with 80 percent in higher education. Rimac especially appreciates a society of knowledge. Before he appeared, anyone in Croatia would have said production of any type is doomed. Highly sophisticated technology is, in the eyes of its residents, distant from Croatia, a land destined to import vehicles. Today Mate Rimac owns a company whose growth tendency is highly accented. Considering the automobile giants have announced the next 12 years will be all about electric car production, Rimac is set to make great profits. The prognosis is that the biggest vehicle producers will soon be producing more electric than conventional cars. Batteries will thus be in high demand, and Rimac invests most in that segment. Experience, knowledge and permanent investment in the highly educated employees always, even in the Croatian economic perspective, bring a winning combination. Besides, he has increased turnover by twenty times in three years!
Can Rimac’s success be an incentive for other sections of the Croatian economy, can this extremely successful factory from Sveta Nedelja be the generator of an entire segments of the domestic economy?
“Certainly. Only one aspect of our success and development is the employment of a large number of people of various profiles. It is ungrateful to make a prognosis, we are at almost 300 now, on how many we will be in five years? Clear plans exist, which is most important. Back to the trade, young experts developing high technology with us don’t have that opportunity elsewhere in Croatia. What is also highly important, is that we work with domestic suppliers of raw materials. Our business sets an example for private companies in Croatia and contributes to a positive business environment,” concluded Zadar native Marta Longin, a young economist who began working at Rimac Automobili as head of public relations one year ago.
Our question for the Croatian government: will you allow for Rimac Automobili to remain a rare paradise island in the desert of the Croatian economic quagmire or will you use his recipe to open the door for a new industrial revolution? Will the current congregation of Croatian ministers still blindly observe Rimac, hiding their admiration and showing fear of his success? Rimac has done the “impossible” – he has shown that Croatia can have industrial prosperity. He has shown the Chinese don’t only see Plitvice in Croatia but also – a factory for automobile batteries. No matter how undeserving we are institutionally.
Translated from Novi List.
