A Memo to Bugatti and Koenigsegg: Your Reign Is Over
Image Credit: Rimac.
I'm the luckiest guy in the world. Over the years, I've driven fire-breathing V12s that deafen small villages, featherlight track toys that would rather kill you than corner politely, and two-wheeled rockets that turn scenery into a watercolor painting. But there's no time to celebrate the past because every so often, something comes along that just completely resets the entire universe. Something that feels like tasting chili for the first time; your mouth isn't entirely sure what's happening, but it knows it's a big deal. The latest brain-scrambler? It's electric, it's from Croatia, and it's called the Rimac Nevera R. And it is completely, brilliantly, terrifyingly bonkers.
It turns out that, apparently, there are people in this world who looked at the "standard" Rimac Nevera - a car with "only" 1,914 horsepower - and thought, "You know, it's a bit… tame." I can only assume these are the same individuals who season their breakfast cereal with ghost peppers and think base-jumping is a reasonable weekend hobby. For these certified lunatics, Mate Rimac and his team of Croatian wizards went back to the drawing board. The result is the Nevera R, a car that makes the regular Nevera look like a golf cart.
Image Credit: Rimac.
So what did they do? They somehow found more power. The four electric motors, one for each wheel, now conspire to produce a gut-punching 2,107 horsepower. Say that with me, slowly: two thousand, one hundred, and seven horsepower. In a car you can legally stick a license plate on. This really isn't a car anymore; it's a privately owned horizontal rocket ship. The sprint from a dead stop to 60 mph is dispatched in a claimed 1.74 seconds. That's not acceleration; that's teleportation with a slight delay. Keep your foot in it, and 186 mph arrives in a mind-bending 8.66 seconds. By the time a normal modern car is just managing to hit 60, you're already at triple the speed limit and possibly in the next county.
The good people over at Top Gear, specifically the lucky sod Ollie Kew, got to have a go in a prototype. His report basically confirmed that driving the Nevera R requires a complete recalibration of your internal processor. You don't just drive it; you anticipate where you'll be in the next few seconds and aim for that. As Kew noted, the moment you even think about lifting off the accelerator to brake, you've already covered a vast distance. It's the kind of speed that bends your perception of time and space, forcing you to rewrite your entire understanding of performance.
Image Credit: Rimac.
But amidst all this talk of face-melting speed and brain-rearranging g-forces, the Nevera R is… civilized. It's Jackie Chan wearing a tuxedo. Top Gear praised its ride quality, comparing it favorably to a McLaren, which is high praise indeed. It has proper seats, not carbon-fiber torture devices, and normal seatbelts. It's a hypercar that doesn't demand you sacrifice your spine for the privilege of driving it. This dual personality is perhaps its most astonishing feat. It can be a comfortable grand tourer one moment and a weapon of mass velocity the next.
The car itself is a work of art, a carbon-fiber monocoque stretching 187 inches long and 78 inches wide, sitting just 47.5 inches off the ground. It's got a 108 kWh battery, which, if you drive like a saint, might get you somewhere in the ballpark of 150 miles. But buying this car and driving it economically is like buying a Michelin-starred restaurant and only ever serving tap water. And the price for all this electric lunacy? $2.5 million. Yes, that's a lot of zeros.
Image Credit: Rimac.
Here's where my gentle skepticism kicks in, laced with a dose of reality from the man himself, Mate Rimac. You'd think a car this ridiculously capable would be sold out for the next decade. But Mate has been refreshingly open about a peculiar problem: the super-rich aren't exactly queuing up for electric hypercars. It turns out that when you can afford any car in the world, you often want the noise, the drama, the mechanical symphony of a V12. You want the analog watch in a world of smartwatches. As electrification becomes mainstream, the very top of the market is seeking to differentiate itself with good old-fashioned internal combustion theatrics.
This makes the Nevera R a fascinating paradox. It is, by every objective measure, a monumental achievement in automotive engineering. A company that started in a garage in a country with no real automotive industry has, in just over 15 years, produced a car that can humble automotive royalty. Mate Rimac began by converting an old 1984 BMW E30 in his garage after its engine blew during a race. Now, he's the head of a company that not only builds world-beating hypercars but also supplies technology to giants like Porsche and Hyundai. And he is in charge of Bugatti. It's an incredible story of passion and persistence.
Image Credit: Rimac.
And yet, Rimac is fighting for the attention of buyers who crave the roar of gasoline. Will the Nevera R be the car to change their minds? To convince them that the silent, brutal efficiency of electric power offers its own unique, addictive brand of excitement? I honestly don't know. What I do know is that this machine pushes the envelope so far, it is practically mailing letters from the future.
The Nevera R is more than just a car. It's a challenge to the old guard and a stunning demonstration of what's possible when you refuse to believe something is impossible. It forces you to rethink everything you thought you knew about speed. And even if its owners will mostly use it to trundle to the local upscale coffee shop, the fact that it can distort reality on a whim is what makes it so utterly, wonderfully, and ridiculously compelling. Bravo, Rimac. You've made the world a much better, and much faster place.
