Rimac Concept_One Electric Supercar
It took Croatian startup Rimac five
years to take their Concept_One from study to production car, but it’s finally
here and we’ll see if for the first time at the Geneva Motor Show.
Just eight units will be made, at an as
of yet, undisclosed final price, though, in the past, Rimac had revealed that
it was targeting a starting price of around € 800,000 in Europe before taxes (US$ 880,000).
Only a few things have changed compared
to the original Concept_One, mainly cosmetic, with the production car gaining
tweaked LED fixtures on both ends, additional vents and a larger diffuser on
the rear bumper, conventional door mirrors instead of cameras, and different
wheels on the outside.
In the interior, it lost the study’s
twin screens for the mirrors on either side of the fully digital instrument
panel, while getting a new slanted center console that hosts a large
touch-screen for the infotainment system and the vehicle’s secondary functions.
The Concept_One’s dynamics and powertrain functions such as the Rimac All Wheel
Torque Vectoring System are controlled through physical buttons, machined from
billet aluminum.
Rimac maintained the supercar’s electric
powertrain that includes four permanent magnet electric motors, one for each
wheel, located in the center of both axles, delivering a combined 1073 hp and 1,600 Nm of torque from zero RPM. What makes
Rimac’s system stand out is that it includes four gearboxes : a single speed
transmission for each of the front motors, and a two-speed carbon fiber double
clutch transmission for each of the rear motors.
There’s also an All Wheel Torque
Vectoring (R-AWTV) system that is claimed to “precisely calculates the optimum
torque for each wheel” separately, while also functioning as a traction
control, stability control and “electric ABS”. It also commands the 4-wheel
regenerative braking system that can slow the car down with up to 400 kW of
regenerative braking energy or up to 0,6g of deceleration, without activating
the carbon-ceramic brakes.
Completing the powertrain is a battery
pack designed to deliver 1000 kW or 1MW of power during acceleration. The Concept_One tips the scales at
1,850 kg, and is capable of accelerating to 100 km/h in
2.6 seconds, to 200 km/h in 6.2 seconds and reaching a top speed of
355 km/h.
