Early life
He was born inCareer
Rimac Automobili
While the company was founded in 2009, Rimac had no employees until 2011. In 2010, Rimac met Adriano Mudri, who was a designer at General Motors at that time. Rimac proposed to Mudri to develop an electric supercar together. They agreed and started working on a concept as a paper exercise. Rimac was a university student while Mudri was working for GM so both of them worked on the project during nights and weekends: Rimac on the technology and Mudri on the design. By late 2010, they had the first renderings, technical concepts and target specifications. At that time, Rimac was receiving media attention for his BMW conversion that was winning various races. That brought the attention of a fellow Croatian working for a middle-eastern royal family, who asked Rimac to provide materials about the project that he was working on as the royal family might be interested in such projects. Rimac and Mudri prepared a brochure with renderings and technical specifications of the car that they were working on and soon got a call that the royal family was interested in buying two cars. As Rimac, at the time, had no real company, employees or other resources, he told the potential customers that he could not build the car. The customers then offered to invest in Rimac's efforts to enable him to build the car. Rimac started to work on a business plan and received a proposal from the investors shortly thereafter. After receiving the first installment of the investment, Rimac convinced a handful of people to join his company as the first employees. However, after some time, the investors did not respect the agreements and made an ultimatum: to move the company to the Middle-East or they would stop the funding. Rimac was already struggling to pay salaries, rent and suppliers while trying to build the first prototype of the Concept_One with an inexperienced team. With his back against the wall, desperately needing the investor's money, Rimac still decided to refuse to move the company to the Middle East and as a result, lost his only investors. "It was the best thing I've ever done," he said years later, as this move allowed him to keep the company in Croatia. Left with no other choice, Rimac decided to find engineering work for the struggling young company as a revenue stream, while trying to keep the development of the car going. Rimac started to work for other automotive companies to develop batteries, electric powertrain systems or full vehicles as a means of survival, while, at the same time, building their own supercars and trying to find investors to fund bringing their own cars to the market. Rimac always wanted to show that it was possible to build a car and a car company in Croatia. When he had started the company as a 21-year-old, he had no automotive experience and being from Croatia, a country with little automotive industry, he could not hire anybody with experience. Likewise, he did not have the financial means to attract foreign staff to bring in experience. He asked the University for Mechanical Engineering in Zagreb for help to develop the car, but was told by a professor that it was impossible to build a car in Croatia and that he should give up. Rimac presented their first model, the Rimac Concept_One, at the 2011 Frankfurt Motor Show. Adriano Mudri has worked with Rimac ever since and is Rimac's Director of Design today. During the initial years, Rimac was always on the edge of survival and having a hard time attracting investors to put money into a Croatian tech company. However, after years of proving themselves to the industry, Rimac grew and eventually attracted significant investment from companies such as Porsche, Hyundai and Kia. In 2018 Rimac introduced its next generation sports car, the Nevera (renamed from C_Two). After undergoing final development and testing in 2020, production and customer deliveries were planned for 2021. As of 2021, the company is headquartered in Croatia, employs over 900 people and has grown into a leader within a highly competitive industry with the ambition to become a Tier 1 supplier to many OEMs. The company is vertically integrated with many of the components produced in-house. The next challenge is to grow from a low volume manufacturer of complex high-end electrification components, to an established Tier 1 supplier for the industry. Rimac plans to open new high-volume production lines for battery packs, powertrain systems and the Nevera sportscar. On November 2, 2021, Rimac was announced CEO of Bugatti Rimac, a joint partnership between the Rimac Group, Bugatti, and Porsche AG.Greyp Bikes
In 2013, Rimac founded Greyp Bikes, a sister company of Rimac Automobili with the purpose of manufacturing high-performance electric bicycles with which he "intends to change the world". Greyp currently sells a range of electric bicycles, and has won a Design Innovation Award for its technology. The bikes' Central Intelligence Module and eSim help to keep the bike online at all times, while a partner app allows for navigation, fitness tracking and data analysis. All e-bikes with Greyp technology can virtually communicate with each other, linking real-life cycling experiences with the virtual world. The Greyp range currently includes the G6 & G5 mountain bikes, but will grow to include a range of eTrekking (eSUV) bikes in 2021, as well as eCity bikes in 2022.Honours
* 2014References
External links
* Forbes Magazine