He is often called “The Elon Musk des Balkans “- Mate Rimac (33) doesn’t really like the comparison. On the one hand, because the most famous Croatian entrepreneur has a” huge respect for Elon “, as he says. On the other hand, because the creator of fully electric PS monsters everything other than a mass manufacturer and wants to earn his living primarily as a supplier of high-tech electrical components in the future. Nevertheless, Elon Musk (49) also started small with a sensational roadster. And now Rimac is apparently also getting too tight: The car manufacturer is planning a new headquarters on the outskirts of the Croatian metropolis of Zagreb.
“We have reached a point where we need to build our long-term home in Croatia and that is exactly the Rimac Campus”, says the casual looking young entrepreneur with a hipster beard. He spent eight years meticulously planning the campus. The property is 200,000 square meters in size, half of which is built on. The campus is dominated by a gigantic hexagon and a large, kidney-shaped office wing that will provide long-term space for 2500 employees.
Only a few kilometers as the crow flies from Rimac’s current location, the campus is to bundle development, administration and production in a huge area. Here Rimac wants According to its own statements, develop and build prototypes as well as manufacture small series and, in the medium term, also produce large series of its electric drive and battery systems that meet the highest demands.
200 million euros investment
Construction work is scheduled to begin this year and the new headquarters should be ready for occupancy in 2023. Not only the extraordinary construction, which follows a holistic and sustainable approach, but also the estimated costs of 200 million euros show how lucrative it is, manufacturers like PorscheTo count Hyundai or Aston Martin among his customers, whereby Porsche now also holds almost a quarter of the shares in the noble forge.
In contrast to many other electrical startups, Rimac Automobili, which was founded in 2009, has long been making profits – in five of the past eight years, as Mate Rimac assures. “I don’t think any other company in the industry can say that,” he quotes Bloomberg. In 2019, Rimac generated – the balance sheet of the previous year has not yet been audited – accordingly 1.4 million euros profit on a turnover of 23 million euros.
“The campus is our springboard for the growth plans that we have for the next decade and beyond. It strengthens us as a niche manufacturer of hypercars and as a leading supplier of electrical line technology for the largest automobile manufacturers in the world,” emphasizes the young entrepreneur.
Following the self-confident understanding of the brand, the electrical start-up also wants to offer the best possible working environment for an international workforce. According to the plan, this includes relaxation rooms, a fitness and training center, a kindergarten and restaurant for employees, meadows with roaming farm animals and our own organic food production, as well as a museum with a bar and a merchandise shop.
Some of them should also be allowed to be used by visitors, who are also allowed to watch during the tours behind glass panes how the noble electric sports cars are handcrafted – fully electric objects of desire with up to 2000 hp and 400 kilometers per hour, which hardly any of the visitors behind the window can see probably ever will be able to achieve.