What Was The First Ever Electric Supercar?

With electric vehicle sales going from strength to strength, it seems likely that the biggest market for electronic raw materials over the next decade will be found in the manufacturing of electric car batteries, electronic equipment and other components.

With a third car becoming eligible for the highest tier of the Electric Car Grant and the overall electric car sector (including hybrid and plug-in hybrid vehicles) outselling petrol and diesel cars for the first time since records began, the focus has naturally been on increasingly affordable small cars.

However, in the late 2000s and early 2010s, many of the early EVs that generated interest and started to establish the potential for EVs at all levels of the market were surprisingly found in a small garage in Croatia, and how their attempt to electrify an old BMW turned into a transformative force for EVs.

 

The Green Monster 

Established in Sveta Nedelja in 2009, Rimac Automobili originally came about as a way to keep a 1984 BMW E30 alive after its engine blew up.

Its owner, teenage electronics prodigy Mate Rimac, decided to convert it into an EV instead to continue racing that way. Whilst initially very slow, heavy and confounded by a limited range, the car developed into a test mule nicknamed The Green Monster.

Whilst initially facing mockery for bringing a “washing machine” to the track, the BMW set five FIA records thanks to generating the equivalent of 600 horsepower and immediately put the motoring world on notice, leading to interest in what was a rapidly developing Croatian startup founded by a teenager and their new seemingly unfathomable concept car.

 

The Future Of Speed

At the same time that the Green Monster was setting records, Rimac had unveiled its Concept_One supercar with specifications that were initially thought to be impossible for an electric car at the time.

At the time, petrol hypercars had only recently started to break the 1000 horsepower barrier, with the then-record holder being the Bugatti Veyron Super Sport’s 1,183 horsepower.

The idea of an all-electric car having 1088 horsepower was not considered to be possible, but thanks to the then-unique approach of powering each wheel separately, the car had a top speed of 211 miles per hour and could accelerate from 0-62 miles per hour in 2.5 seconds. The final version of the Rimac had 1224 horsepower.

The result was unparalleled acceleration and straight-line speed, something that would be famously shown in a 2017 episode of motoring TV show The Grand Tour, although that episode and the Rimac would become somewhat more infamous later.

A total of 88 units were offered at close to a million dollars, although ultimately only ten were made, but the success of the Rimac was to create an EV that captivated a wider audience, less focused on technological details and fuel economy.

 

What Happened To Rimac And The Concept_One?

Rimac benefitted from angel investment, but the Concept_One got attention from other car manufacturers, so whilst the company has sold less than 100 cars so far under its own name, they have developed hypercar battery systems and components for other car makers.

This includes the hybrid system for the Aston Martin Valkyrie, the Koenigsegg Regera, the Seat Cupra e-Racer concept, and an electric version of the famous Jaguar E-type, bringing the company full circle in its aims to revive a classic sports car.

The fate of the Concept_One itself, however, was a little less positive and a lot more infamous.

On the same 2017 episode of The Grand Tour, Past, Present or Future, Richard Hammond would crash one of the few Concept_One cars in the world following a hill climb event in Switzerland, breaking his knee in the process, but fortunately making a full recovery.

Rimac took the crash in good spirit, giving Richard his broken watch back in a display case engraved with the phrase “Perfected by the British”, and later adding a fire extinguisher to their follow-up Concept_Two car “in case of hill climb”.

They followed up the Concept_One with the even faster C_Two, later renamed the Nevara, joking that their planned 200-car production run (later reduced to 150) would mean there were enough left over in case a celebrity crashes one.

In 2018, Porsche bought a 10 per cent stake, which was later increased to 24 per cent in 2021, before Rimac was merged with Bugatti to form a high-performance car brand that, in practice, increased Porsche’s stake in Rimac to 45 per cent.

The impact of Rimac’s Concept_One was outsized, as its technological innovations have ended up in a wide range of other cars, helping to increase range capacity and performance across the board.