Nico Rosberg collects the first production Rimac Nevera
There are perks to being a Formula One world champ. Buckets of cash, tax havens, retiring in your 30s and plum ambassador roles spring to mind. Seems you also jump the queue when it comes to supercars.
The 2016 F1 champion and ‘sustainability entrepreneur’ Nico Rosberg has collected the first production Rimac Nevera EV, prior to it being sent to his Monaco home.
A car needing little introduction, the Croatian electric hypercar boasts a power figure of 1427kW, 2360Nm of torque and a sub two-second 0-100km/h time. Oh, and it’ll hit 300km/h in 9.3-seconds on its way to a top speed of 412km/h.
It’s priced from US$2.4 million, or about $3.45 million for we Aussies… before all those nasty extra charges.
#001 heading to Monte Carlo
Car #000 – revealed last month as the first production-ready Nevera – is set to be retained by Rimac, but #001 will be in the very capable hands of Mr Rosberg. “It’s the fastest production car the world has ever seen,” Rosberg reminds us.
While #000 is finished in bright Callisto Green with a Sand alcantara interior, bad boy Nico’s gone the ‘full Batmobile spec’ for #001. Cue a Stellar black body and black alcantara cabin.
Rimac stated Rosberg had: “Been a part of the Rimac journey since he first saw the C_Two concept – which would become Nevera – in person several years ago. He believed in Mate (Rimac’s) vision for the Nevera as a truly engaging and comfortable next-generation hypercar, capable of crossing continents and lapping racetracks, all on electric power. He became one of the very first customers.”
Nico was equally gushing. “Ever since I first met Mate and truly understood the genius behind Nevera, I knew I wanted car number one. It showcases the very best of innovative electrification technology, bringing it into a car designed literally from the ground-up to be not just incredibly fast – or the fastest – but really great to drive, too.”
Rimac has said only 150 Nevera examples will be built in its facility near Zagreb. The first year of production is already sold out.
Electrified Bugattis in the making
While catching up with Mate Rimac, Rosberg does a bit of journalist digging, specifically broaching Bugatti and Rimac joining forces.
“It’s a new factory, it’s a new company (Bugatti Rimac),” Mate Rimac says in the YouTube clip. “The brand is Rimac, but the company building the car is Bugatti Rimac.”
Standing in front of a Bugatti Chiron, Mate Rimac says: “It’s one of the last ones with the W16 (petrol) engine, so we are already for the last two and a half years working on a successor.
“The next step is not going to be all-electric; we still believe there’s a very important element to Bugattis in the future with combustion engines, but a very interesting combustion engine… that will be strongly electrified.”
When Rosberg pressed Rimac further he revealed: “I’d say it’s going the opposite direction of what everybody probably expects.”
No doubt the Bugatti Chiron’s successor will have electrification front and centre due to Rimac’s involvement, but exactly what ICE engine accompanies it makes for intriguing stuff.
As Rosberg has a healthy 1.31 million subscribers to his YouTube channel, no doubt he’s planning to show his first drive of the Nevera #001 on this platform very soon.
