Following an interview with Mate Rimac, founder of the eponymous Croatian hyper-EV brand, Maxim recently predicted that Rimac would become the new king of hypercars. And at least according to which electric car is the world’s fastest, it looks like we totally called it.
The quad-motor, 1,914-horsepower Nevera, which Mate cited as an example of his company’s ability to develop fast, high-quality rides on-par with the world’s most elite automotive marques, just set the speed record for production EVs at 256 mph.
To achieve the feat, Rimac’s team selected Germany’s Automotive Testing Papanburg oval, one of few tracks in the world with sufficient straights to support sustained speeds topping an eye-watering 250 mph.
Rimac Chief Test and Development Driver Miro Zrnčević was tasked with making perfect entry onto the straight from the track’s steeply banked curved section to achieve maximum velocity, which was measured by a high-precision GPS-based Racelogic V-Box.
“To travel at 412kph means traveling at a third of the speed of sound. Simply achieving that alone in a road car is incredibly complex, but in Nevera we have created a car that can travel long distances on a single charge, can tackle tight and twisting race tracks and can drift as well as break straight-line speed records, both for acceleration and V-MAX,” Zrnčević said.
Indeed, the range and acceleration are impressive. The Nevera can run for 340 miles on a single charge and go from zero to 60 mph in an organ-pinning 1.85 seconds on the way to 100 mph in 4.3 seconds.
There’s another extraordinary point to make in a bigger-picture sense. Because Rimac and Bugatti are now operating under one company, the joint venture is technically responsible the world’s fastest electric and combustion engine-powered production cars, the latter being the 304-mph Bugatti Chiron Super Sport.
While the production Nevera is limited to 219 mph, Rimac will unleash its full potential at special customer events with proper support, such as careful tire monitoring. The first models have already been delivered to buyers who paid $2 million to own what’s now officially the world’s fastest EV.