Mate Rimac

Mate Rimac
Rimac in 2017
Born (1988-02-12) 12 February 1988 (age 36)
Livno, SR Bosnia and Herzegovina, SFR Yugoslavia
Alma materVERN University of Applied Science
Occupations
Title
Spouse
Katarina Lovrić
​
(m. 2021)​
AwardsOrder of Danica Hrvatska

Mate Rimac (born 12 February 1988)[1] is a Croatian innovator and entrepreneur.[2][3][4] He is the founder and CEO of the Rimac Group, a business which includes Bugatti Rimac – composed of the Bugatti Automobiles and Rimac Automobili brands – as well as Rimac Technology, a supplier of technology to automotive brands. He also founded Greyp Bikes, a high-tech eBike and eBike technology company which was taken over by Porsche AG and is now known as Porsche eBike Performance GmbH.[5]

During his high-school years, Rimac won local, national and international competitions for electronics and innovation.[6] At 19 years old, Rimac started to convert an old 1984 BMW 3 Series into an electric car in his garage.[7] The vehicle broke several world records for electric cars.[8] He then went on to create his first all-electric supercar from the ground up, the Concept One, in 2011 at the age of 23.[9]

His company, Rimac Automobili, went from its first employees in 2011 to more than 1,000 employees in 2020, attracting major investment from Porsche AG, Hyundai-Kia and Camel Group. In addition to developing and manufacturing their own electric sports cars, Rimac provides electric vehicle technologies and systems for many brands in the auto industry.[10] It is currently publicly known to be working with, or producing components for Porsche, Hyundai, Kia, Renault, Jaguar, Aston Martin, SEAT, Koenigsegg and Automobili Pininfarina. Rimac's second car, designed, engineered, and built in-house, is the Nevera.[11]

Rimac has previously turned down offers to move his business out of the country, stating that his goal is to bring automotive manufacturers to Croatia.[3][12][4] Motor Trend has ranked Rimac ninth on their list of the biggest players in the auto industry,[13] Forbes named Rimac one of the Top 30 Under 30, the 30 best entrepreneurs under the age of 30 of the world, in 2017.[14] Rimac was named the Croatian Entrepreneur of the Year in 2017 by EY Hrvatska (Ernst & Young Croatia).[4]

  1. ^ "Rimac Automobili on Instagram". Instagram. Retrieved 12 February 2020.
  2. ^ "Meet the Croatian inventor behind the world's first electric supercar". CTV News. 6 March 2016. Retrieved 12 May 2018.
  3. ^ a b Luke Waller (2 December 2015). "24 - Mate Rimac - Croatia - The Innovator". Politico. Vol. 28. Axel Springer SE.
  4. ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference CroatiaWeek-2018-03-21 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ "Porsche Takes Complete Ownership of Greyp". Pinkbike. 23 February 2023. Retrieved 27 February 2024.
  6. ^ "Učenje tek sad počinje". Glasnik SSN. Retrieved 8 February 2021.
  7. ^ "Rimac Automobili test mule breaks world records". Rimac Automobili. Retrieved 8 February 2021.
  8. ^ "Rimac e-M3 is the fastest accelerating EV in the world [video]". Motor1.com. Retrieved 8 February 2021.
  9. ^ "Rimac Concept One electric supercar: 2011 Frankfurt auto show". Motor Authority. 15 September 2011. Retrieved 8 February 2021.
  10. ^ "Rimac founder pushes hypercar maker to become a Tier 1 supplier". Automotive News Europe. 18 January 2020. Retrieved 14 February 2021.
  11. ^ "Rimac C_Two: 1888bhp hypercar on track for 2021 deliveries". Autocar. Retrieved 14 February 2021.
  12. ^ Lauren Simmonds (17 March 2018). "Mate Rimac: I Want to Help Croatia Bring Other Car Manufacturers Here". Total Croatia News (HRT).
  13. ^ "2020 MotorTrend Person of the Year: Who's the Biggest Player in the Auto Industry?". 19 November 2019.
  14. ^ Cite error: The named reference SeeNews-2017-01-18 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).