Hyundai invests $90 million in Rimac, will partner on performance EVs
There's also a high-performance hydrogen powertrain in the works.
It's been a while since we've heard from Rimac, the company building a properly bonkers electric hypercar. But now, thanks to an investment from two major automakers, that name should be popping up more often.
Hyundai Motor Group announced on Tuesday that it has invested 80 million euro (about $90 million) in Rimac Automobili, a Croatian startup working on electric vehicles. 64 million euro (about $72 million) will come from Hyundai, while the remainder will be sourced from Kia's coffers.
The partnership will bear two pieces of serious performance fruit. The first is, as the press release refers to it, "an electric version of Hyundai Motor's N brand midship sports concept car." This brevity-averse phrase likely refers to an EV variant of the RM16 N Veloster concept, a midengine performance car that's been spied on normal roads in camouflage. If you thought the Veloster N was the end-all, be-all of Hyundai's N performance division, nope.
In addition to the midengine EV, the two automakers will also build a "high-performance fuel cell electric vehicle," which sounds mighty interesting. Most fuel cell vehicles we've seen thus far have been family-friendly rides, like the Hyundai Nexo and Toyota Mirai . Pininfarina had a hydrogen supercar concept in 2016, but it appears that it chose to stay in 2016.
Rimac landed on the scene in 2011 with its 1,224-horsepower Concept_One. The company made its next appearance at the 2018 Geneva Motor Show when it unveiled the C Two, an electric hypercar packing 1,914 hp and a top speed of 258 miles per hour. Hyundai isn't the only automaker picking up what Rimac's putting down, either; last June, Porsche announced it would take a 10% stake in the Croatian startup.
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