13 years ago, Rimac Automobil broke five world records for EVs with the Rimac e-M3, a 1984 3 Series turned into an electric car. Mate Rimac had been working on his car aka the “green monster” ever since he was just 19 years old. While racing the E30, its gas engine blew up, so he decided to convert it into an EV. After a year of work, the car was still not what he had hoped it would be. It was still too heavy, slow, and had a short driving range.
That’s when Mate Rimac had the idea to gather a team of experts around him to develop components in-house. The e-M3 went on to become a 600-horsepower monster with an instant 900 Newton meters (664 pound-feet) of torque. It was enough grunt for a 0 to 62 mph (100 km/h) sprint in 3.3 seconds and a top speed of 174 mph (280 km/h). Not too shabby, even by 2024 EV standards.
In 2011, the e-M3 was crowned the fastest-accelerating EV in the world, per FIA’s rules. The five records it broke were for the 1/8 mile (7.54 seconds), 1/4 mile (11.80 seconds), 1/2 kilometer (13.71 seconds), 1 kilometer (23.26 seconds), and 1 mile (35.34 seconds).
Those are the origins of Rimac Automobili. It’s the company that gave us the Concept_One electric hypercar that Richard Hammond famously crashed in 2017. The subsequent Nevera arrived a couple of years ago as a speed demon in the EV realm. In 2024, Mate Rimac is the CEO of Bugatti Rimac, but he still loves BMWs. In an Instagram reel, the 36-year-old entrepreneur hops behind the wheel of an M5 E39 after a long workday.
Rimac has owned many BMWs, including an M6 E64 with the big ol’ V10 engine and a rare E30 M3 EVO III. His collection also includes (included?) a blue Z4 M Coupe, an F90 M5 Competition, and an E30 M3 EVO. He was also seen driving an M3 E46 CSL at one point, so suffice it to say, he knows his BMWs.
Lest we forget BMW has joined forces with Rimac to jointly work on battery tech for EVs launching after 2025. Talk about coming full circle…
Source: Mate Rimac / Instagram