The Hyundai Motor Group wants to make a statement in the electrified car market, and Rimac Automobili will help them achieve that goal. The strategic partnership announced today will see Hyundai and Kia invest €64 million and €16 million ($72-$18 million), respectively, into the Croatian company.
As part of the collaboration, all three car brands will work closely together to develop new vehicles. One of them will be Hyundai N’s midship sports car, which will be previewed by a concept at first, as well as a high-performance fuel cell model. Both of them will be launched at a later time.
“Rimac is an innovative company with outstanding capabilities in high-performance electric vehicles, said Hyundai Motor Group’s Executive Vice Chairman, Euisun Chung. “Its startup roots and abundant experience collaborating with automakers with technological prowess makes Rimac the ideal partner for us. We look forward to collaborating with Rimac on our road to Clean Mobility.”
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Mate Rimac, Founder and CEO, added: “We are very impressed by Hyundai Motor Group’s vision as well as prompt and decisive initiative. We believe this technology partnership will create maximum value for our companies and their customers. Rimac is still young and relatively small, but a fast-growing company. We see a strong investor and technology partner in Hyundai Motor Group and believe this collaboration will charge our position as a Tier-1 electrification components supplier to the industry.”
Hyundai’s attempt of bringing a mid-engine model to the market dates back to 2014, when they unveiled the Veloster RM Concept. One year later, they presented a more refined version of the show car. The RM15 was powered by a mid-mounted 296 horsepower and 282 pound-feet (382 Nm) of torque 2.0-liter petrol engine, which allowed it to accelerate to 62 mph (100 km/h) in 4.7 seconds.
In 2016, a prototype was unleashed at the Nurburgring, thus fueling reports of an imminent reveal, which, however, never materialized.
Rimac, on the other hand, is responsible for two extreme battery-electric hypercars: the Concept One and C_Two. They also collaborated with Pininfarina and Aston Martin for the Battista and Valkyrie, respectively, and will help Porsche in their electric future, after the German company purchased a 10 percent stake last summer.