Rimac has announced plans to build a state-of-the-art facility in Croatia, set to house the company’s entire R&D and production processes, including an on-site test track, accommodation and even a museum.
Having become a strategic partner alongside Hyundai-Kia and Porsche, the company is now looking to bring together all of the brands’ personnel and functions under one roof. Rimac says that the new site will become the center of its international research and development and production base, enabling prototyping and low- and high-volume projects for global OEMs to be ramped up.
To be built in Kerestinec on the outskirts of Zagreb, only a couple of kilometers from Rimac’s current facility, the site will cover 200,000m2 , with room for further expansion if necessary.
The facility will be split into two main areas for R&D and production and will house 2,500 employees. An HQ building will house all of the brand’s central functions, including management, R&D and the offices of company founder and CEO Mate Rimac’s electric bike manufacturer, Greyp. The second building will encompass production and testing facilities, a design department and prototyping and reverse engineering. At the rear will be the production plant to house machining, components and vehicle assembly, battery production, composites production and a paint shop.
Croatian architecture firm 3LHD has been tasked with creating an HQ building that not only provides the best-possible working environment for employees but also enables visitors to mix with Rimac’s own staff. Design inspiration has been taken from an array of places, including Rimac’s flagship vehicle, the C_Two, and the building will feature curves and movement that reflect this. Provisions have also been made to build several top-secret project rooms for other work conducted by Rimac for multiple OEMs, alongside a command center to monitor its own car and development data.
“Just 10 years ago this company was only me in a garage, working on electric performance vehicles and components,” said Mate Rimac. “Since then, we have grown to around 1,000 employees, formed strategic partnerships with Porsche, Hyundai Motor Group and others, and are working with the biggest names in the automotive industry. But one thing that we have always committed to is developing our business within Croatia. We’re proud to be here and with this new location, it will be our long-term home.
“We have now reached a point where we need to build our long-term home in Croatia, and that’s exactly what the Rimac Campus is. Having outgrown our existing facilities, we’re now creating a space that best reflects our brand and our ambitions, working with world-leading architects to build a campus that sits comfortably within the natural beauty of Croatia while also bringing every aspect of Rimac into one place. The campus is our springboard to the growth plans we have over the next decade and beyond, strengthening us as a niche hypercar maker, a leading Tier 1 supplier of electric performance technology to the world’s largest automotive manufacturers and an early mover in the worlds of autonomy and mobility.”
The project, one of Europe’s largest for the automotive sector, is set to begin later this year following a €200m (US$238m) investment from Rimac, with completion set for 2023.
