There are particular parallels between Elon Musk and Mate Rimac. Each are fiercely unbiased and laser-focused on the necessity to electrify the whole lot and energy the world with renewable vitality. Each started their adventures into constructing electrical vehicles by making sports activities automobiles, and each have used the experience acquired by manufacturing batteries for automobiles to department out into grid-scale vitality storage.

Whereas Mate Rimac (pronounced mayt ree·muhts, based on the web) has not produced anyplace close to the variety of electrical automobiles as Musk and Tesla have — Rimac focuses on extremely costly purpose-built sports activities automobiles for the obscenely rich — he has nonetheless attracted fairly a little bit of consideration from mainstream automakers, largely due to his prowess at making enormously highly effective electrical motors and his capability to get large quantities of energy out of a battery pack.

Rimac, Hyundai, & Bugatti

In 2019, Hyundai Motor Group invested €80 million in Rimac Automobilii. That cash might be used to create a strategic partnership for the joint growth of excessive efficiency battery-electric and gasoline cell autos. Mate Rimac mentioned on the time of the announcement, “We see a robust investor and know-how accomplice in Hyundai Motor Group and consider that this collaboration will cost the corporate’s place as a Tier 1 electrification parts provider to the business.”

“Rimac is an revolutionary firm with excellent capabilities in high-performance electrical autos,” mentioned Euisun Chung, deputy chairman of Hyundai Motor Group. Rimac Automobilii has made a reputation for itself by specializing in electrical automobile applied sciences and sports activities automobiles. Final yr, Rimac signed a cooperation settlement with Pininfarina — now owned by Mahindra — and the SEAT model Cupra. It additionally has partnerships with Aston Martin, Renault, and Koenigsegg.

In 2021, Bugatti (a part of the Volkswagen Group) shaped a three way partnership with Rimac during which Bugatti holds 45% of the shares and Rimac the remaining 55%. The 2 corporations will proceed to construct and market their very own vehicles.

Oliver Blume, who was the CEO of Porsche on the time, advised CAR, “Porsche, Bugatti and Rimac are an ideal match. The Croatians are quick movers when it comes to battery and software program growth, low quantity excessive finish merchandise, prototyping, and ahead considering so far as the zero emission massive image is worried.

“The purpose for Bugatti on this three way partnership is to speed up the important engineering transformation and to fastidiously adapt and hone its key model values. Final however not least, Porsche additionally has a vested curiosity within the end result of this cooperation — in spite of everything, the 918 Spyder could at some point get an much more superior alternative,” Blume added.

Asserting Rimac Power

In a weblog submit on its web site, Rimac Know-how mentioned it’s launching Rimac Power to speed up the transition in the direction of a sustainably powered planet and leverage its experience in making market-defining electrical automobile know-how to create the subsequent era of stationary Power Storage Programs.

These programs will function a novel electrical structure which allows vital efficiency, security, and availability benefits, based on the corporate. All merchandise might be totally designed, developed, and produced in Europe.

Rimac Power will create its pilot programs for chosen prospects this yr, with commissioning in 2024. Excessive quantity ESS manufacturing will start in 2025 on the Rimac Campus in Croatia and scale to greater than 10 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of annual manufacturing.

This marks a serious milestone for the corporate because it expands past its market-leading EV know-how and introduces revolutionary stationary vitality storage programs. These stationary options are important to realizing the total potential of renewable energy era and driving the decarbonization of our vitality networks.

The Rimac Power division has been purposely constructed as a specialised staff inside Rimac Know-how during the last 18 months, and now consists of 60 devoted workers, all of whom at the moment work on its first era of stationary ESS and pilot functions with choose prospects.

Leveraging Battery Experience

Leveraging Rimac’s famend experience in EV know-how, Rimac Power applies the identical engineering philosophy and design know-how to stationary vitality storage functions. Consequently, it has created a novel battery structure that reduces effectivity losses by as much as 50%, whereas reducing the system footprint by as much as 40% in comparison with at the moment obtainable options. Further technological advantages embrace improved cycle life, built-in redundancy for elevated availability, and aggressive materials and set up prices.

“At Rimac we’ve at all times been pushed by innovation and a ardour for pushing the boundaries of what’s doable within the automotive business. Nevertheless, we acknowledge the significance of stationary storage options to energy our planet sustainably. Given our observe file in revolutionary battery know-how, we consider we are going to play an important position in constructing Europe’s future vitality ecosystems, elevating it on the worldwide stage,” says Wasim Sarwar Dilov, the director of the brand new firm.

Initially, the vitality storage firm will present options for giant business, industrial, and utility scale functions, with battery-buffered options for quick and megawatt charging already underway. The corporate at the moment has a number of buyer tasks in dialogue, together with a pilot with a number one renewable vitality firm to offer battery storage options for its photo voltaic and wind energy crops.

“There’s an pressing want for clear vitality infrastructure to assist the mixing of renewable vitality sources into the grid by offering storage and balancing capabilities. Given our head begin in EV know-how and dedication to sustainability, this path seems like a seamless development for us. Our staff is really enthusiastic about creating options that make clear vitality extra accessible, as we attempt to lower our dependence on fossil fuels and foster a greener future,” says Mate Rimac, the founder and CEO of Rimac Automobili.

The Rimac Group is almost all shareholder of Bugatti Rimac, and the only proprietor of Rimac Know-how. The Group brings collectively probably the most superior hypercars on the earth, with a globally famend staff growing excessive efficiency electrification, autonomous, and software program options for the world’s largest OEMs.

Rimac Group is predicated on the outskirts of Zagreb, Croatia, and has a number of places all through Europe. It at the moment employs greater than 2,000 folks. It’s constructing a brand new 200,000-square-meter Rimac Campus headquarters close to Zagreb, which is able to accommodate greater than 2500 workers.

The Takeaway

Particulars on how Rimac Power will have the ability to lower effectivity losses on its vitality storage items and make them 40% smaller on the similar time might want to wait till the corporate makes that data obtainable. However Rimac’s success in its automobile-related ventures so far suggests its claims might be backed up by actual world efficiency. Mate Rimac isn’t one to make idle boasts.