The Rimac Nevera R has monopolized the attention of the whole world for its impressive speed and power figures. However, this electrical hyperdeportivo, despite breaking speed records, has failed to conquer the heart (or the portfolio) of the most wealthy buyers.
That produces the strange paradox that, while motor world fans celebrate the technological advances applied to one of the most brutal electrical hyperdeporters that have existed, the reality of their sales dazzles their track achievements.
A world speed record that is not enough. The Rimac Nevera R has broken the world speed record for production electric cars, reaching an official brand of 431.45 km/h. However, the fridge R could not maintain its domain in Nürburgring, where it was overcome by the Xiaomi Su7 Ultra, which became the fastest electric to roll through the green hell of Nürburgring, despite being a superberlina and not a hyperdeportivo like the fridge R.
Mate Rimac, founder of the Bugatti brand and CEO, acknowledged in a company statement that “Beating records is in our DNA, and we will not stop here.” However, as published by Bloombergdespite these achievements on the track the fridge R has not achieved the expected commercial impact.
Why don’t Millionaires want the fridge r? One of the hypotheses that have considered Rimac is that the low demand can be related to the preference of high purchasing power for combustion hyperdeporters. As he collected AutocarMate Rimac believed that “the market for electrical hyperdeporters is very limited. Most buyers in this segment still want the drama and emotion of an internal combustion engine.”
This reluctance to embrace electrification in the hyper -sports segment limits the potential market of the fridge R, however impressive their technical figures are. The Croatian brand acknowledges that “it is unlikely that we will manufacture another electric hypercoche in the short term”, reflecting the difficulty of convincing millionaires to change gasoline for electricity, even if it is 431.6 km/h.
Only 40 units and record power. The Rimac Nevera R is a limited edition based on the original fridge, but with an increased power in 200 hp with respect to the original fridge, reaching a total of 2,017 hp. As usual with the hypercoches, of the original fridge only 150 units will be manufactured, but in the case of the fridge R, its roll will be even lower, since it is a limited edition to 40 units, which underlines its exclusivity in the market of electrical hyperdeporters.
The Price of each unit is around 2.3 million euros more taxes, placing it at the top of the most expensive electric cars. This combination of power and exclusivity has not been enough to convince the richest buyers, who seem to prefer other options.
Porsche is worried about Rimac’s sales. In Porsche they are not satisfied with the sales figures of the refrigerator and motives are not missing. According to Porsche’s annual report, the German brand has 20% of Rimac’s shares, which makes it a part interested in the financial success of the Croatian company. “The profitability of our investments in Rimac depends on the commercial success of its models,” says Porsche report.
The low sales level has generated a 46% collapse in the benefits up to 182 million euros. According to Autocar, in May 2024, the brand had only delivered 50 units of the refrigerator of the 150 that was going to manufacture. Before such a panorama, the additional 200 hp offered by the fridge R is not expected to be sufficient incentive for the millionaires to queue in the brand’s dealerships to take one. Maybe it is not yet the moment of electrical supercar.
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Image | Rimac
