Croatian hypercar producer Rimac Automobili has raised 80 million euros from the giant automaker Hyundai Motor Company and Kia Motors, thus landing the most valued investment since being founded to date, the Croatian startup announced. Hyundai has invested 64 million euros and Kia Motors 16 million euros. With the investments, a technical partnership is being made under which these three companies will collaborate on two high-performance electric vehicles by 2020.
With the new collaboration underway, Hyundai Motor Group aims to speed up its transition towards Clean Mobility and position itself as a global leader in driving this change in the industry, the South Korean automaker reported.
“Rimac is an innovative company with outstanding capabilities in high-performance electric vehicles,” said Euisun Chung, Executive Vice Chairman of Hyundai Motor Group. “Its startup roots and abundant experience collaborating with automakers combined with technological prowess makes Rimac the ideal partner for us. We look forward to collaborating with Rimac on our road to Clean Mobility.”
For Rimac Automobili CEO, Mate Rimac this partnership will charge the company’s position as a Tier-1 electrification components supplier to the industry.
“We are very impressed by the Hyundai Motor Group’s vision and prompt and decisive initiative”, said Rimac. “We believe that this technology partnership will create maximum value for our companies and their customers. Rimac is still a young and relatively small but fast-growing company. We see a strong investor and technology partner in Hyundai Motor Group and believe that this collaboration will charge the company’s position as a Tier-1 electrification components supplier to the industry.
Founded in 2009 in Croatia, Rimac Automobili started as an electric car produced in a garage. Today, Rimac develops and manufactures key electrification systems for many global automotive companies, and at the same time, raises the bar for performance EVs with their own electric hypercars. The company employs more than 500 people today with plans for strong future growth. Reportedly, the next challenge ahead is to grow from a low volume manufacturer of complex high-end electrification components to an established Tier-1 supplier for the industry. To date, the company has been approached and established cooperation with world renewed automotive companies such as Daimler and Porsche.
Hyundai Motor Group, on the other hand, is a global corporation that has created a value chain based mostly on automobiles. Founded in 1967, with about 250,000 employees worldwide, the group’s automobile brands include Hyundai Motor Co. and Kia Motors Corp and it is the third largest vehicle manufacturer in the world.
