Porsche announced on Wednesday that it bought a ten percent stake in Croatian electric carmaker Rimac Automobili. The Stuttgart-based automaker is also looking to enter a technical partnership with the EV maker.
Porsche's move suddenly seems so glaringly obvious, that we are compelled to think why this didn't come to anyone's mind. You see, Porsche builds performance cars that are the absolute benchmarks of their specific segment. The German carmaker is also aggressively developing cars running on electric powertrains. The Porsche Taycan is the first of the all-electric cars the company has planned to produce. It is also putting in place a vast network of fast chargers numbering into the hundreds.
On the other hand, Croatian Rimac Automobili may not have the legacy that Porsche commands, but the firm's first car, the Rimac Concept One blew all the arguments against EVs out of the water. Not only was it unarguably faster than its IC counterparts, it had decent range and looked like a proper supercar too. As of today, Rimac is developing the Concept Two in earnest as a successor of the C1. However, Rimac does not just build exotic electric cars. Mate Rimac's ten-year-old company also produces EV powertrain components and battery systems, which Porsche wants to capitalize on by entering a strategic partnership.
Porsche's press release regarding the Rimac partnership also let slip a few more details about the C2. Apparently, the Croatian electric hypercar has a range of close to 650 km on a single charge. It can be charged up to 80% in just 30 minutes via a 250kW fast-charging system. These features of the car probably had Stuttgart sit up and take notice. We can clearly see the goals of both these firms aligning very closely and are already eager to see what fruit the partnership will bear.
