Croatia’s Mate Rimac will invest his vast knowledge and five million euro into an e-engine and battery factory worth 158.2 million dollars in China, as well as obtain 40% of ownership.
As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 13th of March, 2018, while the attention of car enthusiasts was turned to Geneva and the new Concept Two, Mate Rimac concluded the career move of his life with his leading shareholder in Asia.
Rimac Automobili and the well-known Camel Group have agreed to build a 1 billion electric motor and battery factory in China by the end of the year. Rimac himself says this is an important business step for the company, as the new factory will focus solely on the Chinese market.
“China is important to us, because it represents the world’s largest market for electric cars, buses, trucks and other means of transport, and it has the highest growth,” Rimac explained to Poslovni Dnevnik.
According to the association of CAAM vehicle manufacturers, China produces 2-3 million vehicles per month, of which 5% are e-vehicles. With Rimac Automobili, it is clear that the plan of the Chinese Government is to completely switch to electric vehicles. This means that the demand for electric cars, batteries and other systems that will be built into e-vehicles, which the manufacturers will obviously need, will increase by approximately 20 times in the coming period. According to CAAM data, China now produces 110 to 130,000 e-vehicles per month, while the engine and battery factory, built by Rimac and Camel, will have a massive annual capacity of 50,000 units.
“China has been strategically committed to electric vehicles, and today it’s in its transport plan to switch over completely to electric, and we’ve made an exception to the Chinese market. Rimac Automobili’s development and production for all other world markets remains in Croatia,” Mate Rimac reassured.
For Rimac, the conditions for a new deal with the Chinese are truly exceptional. This is likely to be the most profitable and most potent Croatian investment in China from the very start. The total investment in the new factory is 158.2 million dollars, almost a billion kuna. Rimac Automobili has participated in this with five million euro in cash, coupled with his priceless knowledge, invaluable experience and highly respected advanced technology, the rest has been invested by Camel. In exchange for his more than significant investment, Rimac received a 40% share.
The Camel Group has confirmed that the new factory will target only the Chinese market and is to be constructed in Xiangyang, China’s central Hubei province, located in a very unique position.
According to the Xiangyang City Administration data, in the last five years, the overall investment amount in the area of the city has been worth 400 billion yuan. When calculated and compared, this is slightly less than 400 billion kuna. How much that actually translates to and means in reality is best summed up with a quick comparison to the Republic of Croatia. Just this one, lesser known Chinese city, has received almost twice as much in investments over the last five years as the whole of Croatia has, since its foundation until today.
Due to this fact, Mate Rimac has emphasised the fact that the main focus on the Chinese market is on large series’ and at very competitive prices.
“On the other hand, the main focus of Rimac Automobili remains high-performance drive and battery systems and smaller series’ for European premium manufacturers,” says Rimac.
Othwewise, his Chinese partner, Camel Group, is the largest battery manufacturer in Asia. At the end of last year, Camel invested 30 million euro into Rimac Automobili, making it the second largest shareholder.
Shortly afterwards, Rimac has released the new C_Two model, the first commercially available personal car with support for autonomous 4th level driving. C_Two is sold at a cost of 1.7 million euro, and Rimac plans to sell 150 of them, aiming at revenue higher than a quarter of a billion euro, just from the sale of a new model.
While the results for 2017 still remain unknown, the year before, Rimac had a revenue of 46.6 million kuna, and a massive net profit of 1.19 million kuna.
