Mate Rimac and his company Rimac Automobili are continuing to succeed in placing Croatia somewhere else on the map outside of the sunshine and sea bubble.

With his company having secured investment from the likes of Porsche, drawn the attention of Bugatti, and with him having drawn up a step by step plan to show the Croatian Government just how to actually attract investment and interest from the automotive industry, this unassuming man from Livno, Bosnia and Herzegovina, has become somewhat of a phenomenon. Rightly so.

His super cars, the C_One and C_Two, are admired across the world, and they're made right here in Croatia, in a factory in Sveta Nedelja near Zagreb. Not bad for a country which seems to want to do everything in its power to make it as difficult as possible for budding entrepreneurs, sending them instead abroad with a disdain for red tape to pitch their ideas and make their money.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 8th of September, 2019, Rimac Automobili has posted a video on the company's YouTube channel in which the safety of the beautiful new C_Two model is tested by the use of a popular crash test.

The video shows the C_Two prototype just before a frontal collision, but also a number of others, so it can be easily concluded that more than one of Rimac's vehicles has been ''sacrificed'' so far.

''Mate always says: This is a marathon, not a sprint race. The C_Two is undergoing a brutal crash test program and hundreds of other tests as part of its global approval. We decided to take you on this journey and show you everything. This is just a little glimpse into the future, stay tuned for more development-related content,'' the comment says in the YouTube video.

Watch the video here:

In an official statement, Rimac Automobili has stated that it will start production in 2020.

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Croatian entrepreneur Mate Rimac's famed company Rimac Automobili has secured an increase in investment from Porsche, seeing Porsche raise its stake in the company to 15.5 percent.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 6th of September, 2019, back in June 2018, the giant German sports car maker purchased a 10 percent stake in Rimac Automobili. Increasing Porsche's stake now strengthens their already established partnership.

As Porsche increases the range of its electrified models, the partnership they have with Rimac Automobili will leverage what Rimac's enviable expertise in vehicle electrification, including powertrains, batteries, motors and inverters means in the automotive industry.

"Porsche has been following the positive developments from Rimac for a year," stated Lutz Meschke, Deputy Chairman of the Executive Board and Chief Financial Officer of Porsche AG. "It quickly became apparent to us that Porsche and Rimac could learn a lot from each other. We believe in Mate Rimac and his company, so now we've increased our stake and expanded our collaboration in battery technology."

This Croatian entrepreneur's journey from his garage to incredible global recognition is an inspiring story of success that has been achieved in less than a decade, and in a country like Croatia, which isn't known for being the land of hope and glory for budding entrepreneurs. Today, in partnership with the full spectrum of high-performance car manufacturers, his team of 600 people work alongside him to create some of the fastest and most exciting electric road vehicles in the world.

"One of the most important milestones in our history has been to win Porsche as a partner. The fact that Porsche is now increasing its stake is the best confirmation of our cooperation and the basis for an even closer relationship," said the company's founder and CEO Mate Rimac.

''We're just at the very beginning of our partnership - and our high expectations have already been fulfilled. We have many ideas that we want to bring together in the future. The key is to create a win-win situation for both partners and add value to our end customers by developing exciting electric models.''

Increasing Porsche's stake in Rimac Automobili will contribute to the rapid pace of this company's overall development, which includes a significant increase in the company's production.

In addition to designing, developing and manufacturing advanced technologies for a variety of high-performance car brands, Rimac Automobili is currently completing its C_Two car development ahead of production in 2020.

The car will undergo an intensive testing program as part of type approval for distribution across all of the world's markets.

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Imagine being thoughtless enough to be able to steal a state of the art Greyp bike belonging to Mate Rimac's company and actually think you'd gotten away with it?

There are thieves, and then there are thieves. There are two categories of thief, one category is for the likes of the great train robber, and for those who find genius ways of getting into cash machines to remove the contents. The other category is reserved for petty thieves who leave their fingerprints everywhere and decide to commit their crime of choice under the watchful eye of Big Brother.

It seems that a thief of the latter category decided to have a go at stealing one of Rimac's famous Greyp bicycles, apparently entirely unaware that the vehicles are equipped with not only a GPS system, but with cameras, too.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 12th of August, 2019, Mate Rimac's creation, the Grejp bike, is equipped with GPS and cameras.

''We knew exactly where it was, we even watched a police officer come for him,'' wrote Mate Rimac on his Facebook account, likely amused by the lack of thought involved in this clearly not very seasoned thief's mind.

''The moral of the story: Don't mess with Greyp Bikes,'' Rimac wrote on Facebook, as 24sata reported.

Croatia's top entrepreneur Mate Rimac posted on Facebook that they found the Greyp bike belonging to his company that was stolen a few months ago in Germany.

The Greyp Bikes' bicycle was stolen by a thieves at event in over Germany and they have now been identified and apprehended thanks to the modern technology this Croatian bike boasts.

''The thief stole the G6 at one of the first events we presented it at (in Germany). Now, a few months later, the bike was online again for the first time. Being equipped with GPS and cameras, we knew exactly where it was. We even watched a police officer come for him. The moral of the story: Don't mess with Greyp Bikes,'' Mate Rimac wrote.

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As SEEbiz.eu/autonet writes on the 7th of August, 2019, rumours that Bugatti has been interested in developing and launching a crossover have been roaming the auto industry for some time now, but the details have remained left to speculation. Could Croatia's Rimac Automobili play a part in that story?

With that being said, recent information indicates that the Moslheim team is very interested in an electrically powered crossover, and Mate Rimac's one and only Rimac Automobili could be the one to play a significant role in all of this, according to a report from autonet.

At first, it was rumoured that Bugatti would use the Lamborghini's Urus to develop its crossover, but Automobile Magazine reports that the 4.0 bi-turbo V8 is not really what the famed French brand wants. The source said that those responsible for this in Bugatti thought that their new model should have an electric powertrain and instead turned to another VW Group member instead of Lamborghini.

More specifically, Bugatti reportedly contacted Rimac Automobili through Porsche, as ten percent stake in that company is now held by Porsche. Talks have also been held about the possibility of using a 1914-horsepower electric powertrain that fits into Rimac's magnificent Concept_Two.

Still, this is all mere speculation at this point and there is currently no official confirmation from any of the involved parties about these allegations for the time being, but it seems a little unusual for Bugatti to opt for the development and launch of a nearly 2000hp crossover, at least while the Chiron is still very much in production. In addition, it is expected that Bugatti could sell over 600 copies of that model of car, and possibly at a price lower than Chiron's.

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Mate Rimac is by far Croatia's most popular success story. Rimac, born in Livno, Bosnia and Herzegovina, is a shining star who has faced down the red tape and draconian anti-entrepreneur policies of the outdated Croatian state and managed to succeed beyond his own wildest dreams.

The founder and CEO of the celebrated Rimac Automobili, the factory of which is located in Sveta Nedjelja, just outside Zagreb, has enjoyed large investment from major firms in the automotive industry, including the likes of Porsche. In addition, he has succeeded in drawing the attention of would-be investors in the automotive industry back to Croatia, a country which had previously been almost entirely bypassed because of its infamous and bizarre love for bureaucratic processes and endless, senseless paperwork.

Mate Rimac proposed measures needed to attract the car industry to Croatia to the Croatian Government, who are of course more than ten steps behind this innovative and exceptionally talented entrepreneur, and the hope is that upon acting on Rimac's valuable advice, the days of the need for your mother's birth certificate translated and apostilled and then inspected and stamped by a state employed uhljeb just to be able to start a company will one day be over.

It seems that Mate Rimac is continuing to impress, and on the world stage. As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 31st of July, 2019, Rimac Automobili's founder Mate Rimac has found himself rightfully placed on the list of the most successful young entrepreneurs and future billionaires in Eastern Europe by the popular portal Slavorum.

Mate Rimac has thus found himself in the talented company of Branko Milutinović from Serbia, the founder of Nordeus, a mobile gaming development company that is considered one of the fastest growing in all of Europe. In addition to innovation, Milutinović is also known for his humanitarian work throughout Serbia.

In addition, there is Bulgaria's Konstantin Rangelov, and his company Dronamic allows air transport of products up to 350 kilograms in a short period of time.

Last on the list is Rostislav Knap from Poland, who as a great expert in finance and business launched the company CallPage, an online service that monitors user behaviour and activities on websites.

According to Slavorum, the business done by these entrepreneurs is always on the up and they could soon become big global players.

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Mate Rimac, Croatia's golden entrepreneur gave an example to the Croatian Government when it comes to attracting investment and the automotive industry - that example was Slovakia.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 6th of July, 2019, over in Slovakia, which is hardly on the other side of the world geographically, however seems to be in every other term when compared to Croatia; Kia provided incentives of as much as a billion euros, with which they built a brand new factory.

Two years ago, the young innovative Croatian entrepreneur Mate Rimac invested in developing a strategy for attracting the automotive industry to Croatia, and the project he presented to the Croatian Government was designed to be the basis for new measures for this sector, Marina Šunjerga writes for Večernji list.

As stated, the apparently endlessly talented Rimac found inspiration in the most successful country in this sector - Slovakia. The timing is now excellent considering that at this point, consideration is being taken in how to boost the development of electric car technology for the new century.

Rimac Automobili is a Croatian company that has been recognised as a real generator of knowledge and experience in producing the best electric batteries in the automotive world, with the development of the fastest electric car in the world, and there lies an opportunity for Croatia to take advantage of what Rimac has achieved against the odds and properly position itself the ''car map'' of the world.

Prime Minister Andrej Plenković briefly commented on yesterday's session of the Government on Rimac's initiative, saying that he believed his suggestions and ideas would be of particular importance to the Ministry of Economy for the further improvement of Croatia's investment and business climate, as well as other institutions through the aspect of education and the labour market, to contribute to further attracting the automotive industry to Croatia.

We have not yet heard the new measures that could attract companies such as Hyundai or Volkswagen to Croatia, and from the Ministry of the Economy, which Plenković has been pushing to develop new measures, they stated that Rimac and other automotive investors can count on all the measures within the Investment Promotion Act, which includes a reduction of the profit tax base and incentives for every new employee.

They also added that consideration is being given to the possibility that the realisation of a Rimac Campus would be facilitated by the Croatian Government, by giving the company land owned by the state.

This is a project that comes with a hefty price tag of between 80 and 100 million euros, which would include a centre for development and innovation for as many as 2000 employees.

While it all sounds straightforward enough, this is still Croatia, and the idea of realisation through land-delivery is not as feasible as it might sound at first, because they would have to go through a local unit that could eventually provide the company with a free location. This doesn't happen overnight.

With that land, Rimac would be able to count on all the standard incentives like all the other investors in this field do. According to the investment calculator, the investor would receive about 12 million kuna of direct incentives and about six million kuna of tax incentives in support for employment, which is a substantial amount for an investor as it exceeds 15 percent of the investment value.

Croatia gets a lot of bashing for its poor investment climate, but there are actually measures in place which are quite favourable, and although incentives in Croatia aren't small, the automotive industry's attraction to the country is spoiled by the poor attitude and the slow, cumbersome approach that has become synonymous with Croatia, and are looking for a much more proactive approach from politicians.

Slovakia has attracted billions of euros in investments over the past twenty years, resulting in the realisation of 34 large projects, and it's now the country with the highest number of cars per capita in the world. The project started with a smaller VW investment in Bratislava way back in 1993.

Slovakia cut profit tax from 40 all the way down to just 19 percent, and the investors completely free from having to pay tax for five years. Like Croatia, it offered quite handsome incentives in terms of employment, and he Slovakian politicians were at the disposal of investors. VW has invested 302 million euros in Slovakia so far, and has received tens of millions of euros in incentives from the Slovaks. It's a relationship which works harmoniously, and is also something that is difficult to imagine for Croatia and its draconian laws and rates.

Could everything be about to change? Has spending time with the amazing Mate Rimac opened the Croatian Government's tightly closed eyes? Only time will tell.

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Mate Rimac and his company Rimac Automobili are known for their tireless efforts, but they've been all systems go over the last few weeks in terms of trying to finally make the Croatian Government see sense when it comes to attracting foreign investment into the automotive industry, which is currently an industry entirely bypassing Croatia, favouring its neighbours with more friendly, less draconian policies instead.

Is all this about to finally alter? After Mate Rimac managed to arrange a meeting with the Prime Minister, following a long period of HDZ's main man seeming to disregard the idea, this innovative Croatian entrepreneur has been doing all he can to show PM Plenković, who was visibly impressed with what he saw at the Rimac Automobili plant in Sveta Nedjelja, as well as his government delegates, just how investment can be attracted, and how Croatia can jump on the well-paying automotive industry's train before it's too late.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 1st of July, 2019, following the meeting held between Mate Rimac and Andrej Plenković last week, Mate Rimac announced on Facebook that Hyundai, which has the utmost respect for Rimac, now officially supports the initiative to bring the car industry to the Republic of Croatia.

This is a truly incredible move for a country which succeeds in doing very little in terms of investment, other than turning it away and giving anyone who does try a far more difficult time than could ever be considered necessary. A move that could not have been made a reality if it weren't for the incredible Mate Rimac.

"Hyundai officially supports the initiative to bring the automotive industry to Croatia. I hope this opportunity will be utilised,'' said Mate Rimac on his Facebook profile today after Hyundai released a press release on its official website regarding Friday's meeting on the potential of the automotive industry in Croatia.

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Just what did Prime Minister Andrej Plenković take away from finally attending a meeting with Croatian entrepreneur Mate Rimac at Rimac Automobili in Sveta Nedjelja?

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Ana Blaskovic writes on the 30th of June, 2019, after Mate Rimac reached out with apparently little response from the HDZ leader, this is now the second time in one week that entrepreneur Mate Rimac, owner of Rimac Automobili, and Prime Minister Andrej Plenković have spent time together.

The pair held a meeting at the headquarters of Mate Rimac's company in Sveta Nedjelja, along with representatives of both Hyundai and Porsche, as well as five government ministers, and discussed the potential of attracting investment and stength to the car industry in Croatia.

"The car industry is changing and this is a chance for Croatia. We want to bring the best quality industry, not one based on cheap labour. We have the support of our investors. We want to work together on it and not end up saying that we've missed out on the car industry of the future. Let's create the conditions for foreign investors to make it interesting for them to come to Croatia,'' said Mate Rimac, when presenting the Croatian Government delegation his concrete guidelines for attracting investors to the car industry, a study which has taken him two years to complete.

When it was recently announced that Croatia's GDP grew by 3.9 percent in the first quarter, this news triggered the politicians' sense of self-praise and the disbelief of numerous experts, including those who doubted the fiture, and claimed it was a mistake.

That alone is the precise picture and opportunity of the Croatian economy which is continually growing faster than its potential ever can. Slow and expensive administration, high taxes, too large a share of the state in the economy, a generally fixed set of labour prices; all of this is extremely off-putting to Croatian entrepreneurs, and makes the country very uninteresting to foreign investors (with the exception of those wanting to flash their cash in the otherwise successful field of Croatian tourism) and as such, limits any prospects for a better future in terms of foreign investment in Croatia's other economic branches. Not counting tax breaks, the Croatian Government had to rather dramatically put out fires in two large and significant companies - Agrokor and Uljanik.

That's a meeting with the likes of Mate Rimac and his company's investors from Hyundai and Kia, as well as an extensive presentation on the possibilities of attracting foreign investment to the car industry in Croatia was an excellent and likely eye-opening opportunity for the head of the Croatian Government and his delegates.

Mate Rimac has succeeded beyond anyone's wildest dreams thanks to the killer combination of sheer talent, stubbornness, and enthusiasm, but large car makers will pay much more attention to their investment decisions through comparative advantages, which implies exclusive figures, and not sentiment, emotions or feelings.

"Croatia needs interest in the car industry like the level of interest that exists for the football team, you'll get our support in technology and our experience, but that isn't going to be enough," said Porsche's Lutz Meschke, vice chairman of the executive committee.

Initiatives always come from the private sector, which best knows any real economy, but then the state gets involved. With concrete moves and reforms, Croatia could attract investment and entrepreneurship development. A sample example is the Czech Republic, where industry makes up a third of the economy, with the car industry accounting for about six percent of gross added value. The Czech Republic is now at an impressive 90 percent of the EU's development average, and Croatia is currently at 63 percent.

It's unrealistic to expect that Croatia will repeat the successes of the Czech Republic or Slovakia and employ tens of thousands of people like it once did in shipyards, but the tectonic changes in that industry are a chance we must not miss on. It opens the door to creating high value-added jobs for the highly educated, for innovators and creatives, as well as opening the door for productivity growth. And finally, that we import intelligene.

''I think we'll continue to cooperate, work synergistically, and see which concrete moves the Croatian Government will make," the prime minister promised.

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ZAGREB, June 28, 2019 - Prime Minister Andrej Plenković and five government ministers as well as representatives of Hyundai and Porsche on Friday held talks at the Rimac Automobili company, located in Sveta Nedelja outside Zagreb, on the potential of the automobile industry and ways of attracting it to Croatia, with Rimac Automobili owner Mate Rimac presenting a study with concrete guidelines on how to attract such investments.

Earlier this week, Plenković held a meeting with Rimac, the founder of one of the leading producers of electric vehicles and high-performance technology, after which a visit to his company was announced.

Hyundai Motor Group and Kia have so far invested EUR 80 million in Rimac Automobili while Porsche has invested 18 million euro.

Upon arriving at Rimac Automobili, Plenković and other guests first toured the company's production units, after which Rimac presented a study with specific guidelines and measures as to how Croatia could attract investments in the automobile industry.

Rimac noted that Croatia could be attractive to car producers if it had comparative advantages. That way, it could become an investment destination, which unfortunately is not the case at the moment, Rimac said.

He singled out the examples of Slovakia and Estonia, which have a population of the size similar to that of Croatia and which over the last ten years have significantly increased their GDP owing to investments in the car industry, which Rimac believes is also possible in Croatia.

"The key to success in the automobile industry is a country's strategy and vision of what it wants to achieve. I believe that now is the right time for Croatia to join the so-called third wave of investments in the car industry because we missed out on that opportunity in the last ten years," said Rimac.

He said that the first investment wave in the car industry caught the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary and Slovakia, the second caught again Slovakia as well as Romania, while the third one could include Croatia, in which all of his partners were interested as were representatives of Hyundai and Porsche.

Hyundai owns a 14% interest in Rimac Automobili and Porsche a 10% interest.

"Your achievements are great; you have made an analysis that compares Croatia against other countries and shows how Croatia could become involved more strongly. That is why we will now hold two-hour talks on what we can do together in that regard," Plenković said.

More news about Rimac Automobili can be found in the Business section.

As Novac/Filip Pavic writes on the 24th of June, 2019, Mate Rimac, the founder of the Croatian supercar company Rimac Automobili and Prime Minister Andrej Plenković met in the afternoon a couple of days ago in Banski Dvori. During their 45-minute-long talk, which was also attended by Economy Minister Darko Horvat, Rimac agreed with the prime minister for him to finally pay a visit to his facility in Sveta Nedjelja near Zagreb.

Since Prime Minister Plenković has not yet visited Rimac's supercar factory, he has three-hour tour awaiting him on Friday, and there will also be a presentation on how to attract investment and improve the economic climate for investment in the Croatian car industry. Along with Prime Minister Plenković, Minister of Labour Marko Pavić, Minister of Economy Darko Horvat and Finance Minister Zdravko Marić confirmed their planned arrival to Sveta Nedjelja, and the arrival of Education Minister Blaženka Divjak is also possible.

This delegation of the Croatian Government will meet and list, first of all, to the experiences of investing in Croatia from Rimac's prestigious shareholders, made up of representatives of international automotive companies including Porsche, Hyundai and Kia, who have invested 100 million euros in Rimac Automobili over the past few years. Listening to their stories will hopefully be a wake up call for the group of politicians.

In addition, Rimac will share the likely damning results of an intensive two-year study, which analyses why Croatia lags so miserably behind other nearby European countries when it comes to the car industry, and why so many rounds of investment in that field over the past few years have totally, and intentionally, bypassed the Republic of Croatia.

The recent meeting between the two is the result of a multi-month agreement between Plenković and Rimac, which Jutarnji list recently covered, stating that Rimac was finding it all but impossible get an actual date for a meeting with the prime minister. A fact much of the public were unhappy with the HDZ leader for, especially given the positive publicity and investment Rimac has brought to Croatia.

''They know about my ideas. I've already mentioned them on a couple of occasions. I want to present them to the very heads of the government, but we've not been able to sort a date out yet. I gave them some dates over the next two months when I'm available and I'm waiting for their response as to when Plenković can come and see the presentation,'' said Rimac back then.

Despite the fact that Plenković hasn't visited Rimac Autmobili yet made little difference to Rimac's personal and professional drive, the innovative Croatian entrepreneur didn't hang around waiting for his arrival.

Back in May, he published nineteen measures to develop the car industry in Croatia at the Croatia E-mobility Forum. He let the Croatian Government know that we could have up to 50,000 new jobs in that industry alone, as well as the equivalent of nearly half a billion dollars more in the budget, enough for "one and a half Pelješac bridges, 23 university homes, or 53 schools'' had Croatia set its sights on that type of investment at the correct time, just as other countries in the vicinity, such as the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary already have.

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