2021 Rimac Nevera May Upend the Hypercar Paradigm
Unhinged acceleration with Croatia’s $2.4 million, 1877-hp electric hypercar.
It shouldn’t be this easy to beat a Bugatti Chiron Sport in the quarter-mile. This level of acceleration should require more driver skill, some rare manual dexterity lacking in Joe Commuter. Admittedly, it’s pretty easy to do a full-bore standing-start launch in a Chiron or any gas car that shifts gears for you. But the electric Rimac Nevera’s acceleration and its physiological impact on you are so extraordinary that you feel it shouldn’t be accessible to anyone able to afford the $2,400,000 price and brave enough to hold the accelerator down.
You do need bravery. Scary is often synonymous with fast, but the Nevera, the Croatian carmaker’s latest creation, is unnerving. Find a long straight and bring the car to a stop. Select Track mode from the closer of the two big in-house CNC-milled rotary switches that control the major driving functions, and maximum torque will flow through the four electric motors. Hold the brake, push the right pedal all the way in, and the back of the car squats as the rear motors flex on the suspension. Take a breath and then let go.
It’s not too brutal at first. Doling out twice the power of a modern Formula 1 car all at once isn’t possible, so the initial rollout is gentle compared to what happens later. In those first few tenths, the Nevera precisely matches motor output to available grip. But then the unnerving part starts as the rate of acceleration begins to increase with speed. The Nevera gets quicker as it’s going faster. Your breathing changes, becoming a slightly panicked eight-second inhalation. The fluid in your eyeballs seems to ripple, distorting your vision. The noise is intense: Four motors scream and whine as 1.4 megawatts—that’s 1877 horsepower—pump through them, and four tires rip at the tarmac, constantly on the edge of grip. It takes a very conscious effort to keep your foot in until the quarter-mile marker passes and you can finally exhale, use an expletive, let your head slump forward, and shake in the wake of the adrenaline.
To make matters slightly more stressful, Rimac founder and head honcho Mate Rimac came along to watch the proceedings and the Nevera is a pre-production prototype and particularly important to his business. We’re also taken by the fact that this one car represents a major percentage of Croatia’s entire car production this year. There will be plenty more, though. Named for an electrical storm that occasionally ravages the Croat coast, 150 Neveras will be produced, and the first 50 are already sold.
After a few runs, Rimac himself showed me the onboard telemetry that will be available to customers. With no effort, the car did an indicated 8.7-second quarter-mile at 160 mph. Once the launch control is finalized, Mate promises 60 mph in 1.9 seconds, 100 in 4.3, and the standing quarter-mile in 8.6 seconds. In C/D testing, the Chiron Sport hit 60 mph in 2.4 seconds, 100 in 4.4, and passed the quarter-mile in 9.4 seconds at 158 mph.
