Rimac revealed the ridiculous record-breaking Nevera back in 2021 with a planned production run of 150 units.
The Croatian manufacturer has still not sold all of these units which CEO Mate Rimac has attributed to a decline in demand for ultra-high-end EVs.
Rimac started developing the C_Two concept (Nevera) in 2016 when “electric was cool” but the market environment has shifted Mate noted.
“The regulators and some OEMs [manufacturers] push it so much that the narrative has changed. They’re pushing stuff on us that we don’t want, so people get a little bit repulsed by it, this whole forced application.
“I’m always against it. I think everything has to be based on merit. So the product has to be better.”
The Nevera was built when electric vehicles were still relatively new, the Nevera’s mind-blowing performance with its electric motors and batteries showed what was possible. It was a forerunner, paving the way for future high-performance electric cars.
“At that time,” Rimac said, “we were thinking electric cars would be cool in a few years – the best cars, or with the highest performance and so on.
“We notice [now] that as electrification is becoming mainstream, people at the top end of the sector want to differentiate themselves.”
He added that “if we did an electric Bugatti, we would have sold an amount of them, for sure, because of the brand”, but that amount would have been “nowhere near” the estimated amount it will sell of the V16-engined Chiron successor.
Rimac sees a demand shift in hypercar buyers. Electric cars are popular, but for hypercars, standing out is key. Here, some buyers prefer a more analogue driving experience that electric hypercars might not offer yet.
Source: Autocar