You South Africa – 08 August 2019

BELOW: Mate Rimac

with one of his Concept

Oneelectricsupercars.

FARLEFT:Thebeat-up

(Turnover)

bearsMates name.Atthetime,thein-
ventordidn’t knowfrommonthto
monthwhetherhe’dmeethiswagebill.

He thought Hammond had also wiped
out the company in the crash – but in
fact, he’d done the reverse.

The orders from customers came
in, and so did the investments. In 2018
Porsche bought 10% of the company
for around £17 million (then about

R314,5m); earlier this year, Hyundai put

hedescribesit tome,flickingdownthe

indicatortoleavehisfactory,“Electric

carswereslowandboringanduglyand,

you know, nobody wanted them. AndI

asked myself, ‘Why is nobody using this

beautiful technology to make a car that’s

exciting and fun and fast?’ ”

In the distance ahead of us, on this

light industrial estate outside Zagreb, a

woman turns around while walking her

dog. Then Mate puts his foot to the floor,

BMWhedrovewhen he

leftElonMusk’sroad-

sterinthedustduring

a dragracein2000.

MIDDLE:Mateisabig

admireroftheTesla

founder.LEFT:Prince

HarryhelpsMeghan

Markle intoaJaguar

E-Typewitha Rimac

motoraftertheir

nuptialslast

year.

scathedmidwaythroughfilmingan
episodeofTheGrandTourforAm-
azon Prime.
Onthatdayin2017,withoneill-
judged hairpinbend,Hammond
wipedoutoneeighthofthecompany’s
RimacConceptOnes– theonlycarthat
b M t ’ At th ti th i

in£57m(aboutR1billion)to

gainitsownstake.

The answertowhatMatedid

whileMuskwasmakingthe

electriccarsexy,coolandfast,is

he made theelectriccarevensexi-

er,evencooler– andevenfaster.Or,as

h d ib it t fli ki d th

my cheeksfeellikethey’restretchedback

to my ears, and the world outside begins

to blur.

When we pass her, just more than two

seconds later, we’re doing 90km/h.

 H

E WAS always into cars.

When Mate was a toddler, if

he hurt himself his mom put

him in his granddad’s VW

Beetle to cheer him up.

He soon learnt to game the

system. “My parents tell me stories.

When I was one, I couldn’t walk or really

talk, but I’d pretend that my hand hurt so

that they’d put me in his car.

“And then I’d grab the steering wheel

and forget that I’m pretending that my

hand hurts.”

Of course, lots of toddlers like

cars. Few, though, have so

little opportunity

to see them.

“Bosnia is

maybe the

poorest

country

in Eu-

rope.

“A n d

Livno,

where

I’m

from, is

the poorest

city in Bosnia.

“It has gravel

roads. A car would

pass maybe once a

day.”

When the Bosnian war

started the family fled to Germany –

where his father working as a labourer

before they moved to Croatia. How did

the young Mate handle the complexities

of life as a refugee? Pretty happily, actu-

ally. It was, in his words, “crazy”. “There

were all these cars around me.”

Today Mate works in a swish office far

from the gravel roads of Bosnia. Like all

good start-ups, Rimac Automobili has

bean bags, games consoles and bowls of

communal fruit. In the corridors, with

their artfully exposed plywood, bands of

dogs roam – no modern employer, after

all, denies workers their God-given right

to bring a dog to work.

And like all good technology compa-

nies, it also has a foundation myth – a

story holding it all together. Mate is that

you.co.za 8 AUGUST 2019 | (^81)
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