ZAGREB, 8 July 2021 - The owner of Rimac Automobili, Mate Rimac, said on Thursday that his company is developing a project for autonomous vehicles, robotaxis, and that the first ones if the project is a success, could be tested in Zagreb streets in 2024 already.

He underscored that at the start of next year he would present the robotaxi, a driverless vehicle, to the public. He added that the Nevera model is now completing homologizing and testing and that soon it will be put into serial production. The robotaxi project should be much larger than Rimac Automobili.

"This is something with big potential. A robotaxi prototype has been made, our guests saw it today, however, we have to bring it to a higher level and present it as it should be, probably at the start of next year. The idea is that in 2024 we launch that autonomous vehicle on Zagreb's streets. If we don't succeed with that project, all the money that we invested and will invest will fall through, and that's hundreds of millions. Our objective is to do that by 2024, together with all the necessary infrastructure," said Rimac.

Rimac reiterated that his company has still not succeeded, that success is yet to come, but said that it is going towards that with 1,000 employees and more than €200 million in investment attracted and many more investment to come.

"And that is an investment in development, employment, and production in Croatia that is exported to the entire world. It was a big thing for us to take over Bugatti, a company that has been in business for more than 110 years. That is a big responsibility. For the first time in history, VW has divested a brand from its portfolio," underscored Rimac, adding that VW is the biggest company in Europe with annual revenue of €250 billion.

Bugatti is a successful company but Rimac Automobili wants to make it even more successful, he said.

"It's not true that Bugatti is a hot potato. They are successful. In the past three years, they have been profitable. They sell 90 vehicles a year and have a revenue of about €300 million," he underscored and added that the VW Group agreed to the transaction because it believes that Rimac Automobili has the technology and right approach for something like that.

In that regard, he explained how Porsche had brought its Panamera prototype to Rimac Automobili and said that it had three months to show how the vehicle can be improved. "Within the same battery dimensions and same mass, we created a vehicle that has twice the range and twice the battery capacity," said Rimac.

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May 24, 2021 - A new Rimac project in Zagreb envisions a mobility center, self-driving taxis, a town square, and a park right on the Sava. 

The founder of Rimac Automobili is taking the first step towards realizing a 3.4 billion kuna project to develop and establish a network of electric self-driving taxis in Zagreb, reports Index.hr.

In 2024, Zagreb will become one of the first cities in the world where a robotaxi service will be available - the use of self-driving, electric taxis via an application. Sounds crazy, right? If we trust the entrepreneur Mate Rimac, it will soon become a reality, Index adds. 

Namely, the founder of Rimac Automobili is starting to build a park, square, storage, and charging station for electric, self-driving taxis, or robotaxis, as they are called, on the Sava - on a meadow across from the Zagreb "Stjepan Radić" Student Home.

The competition has been announced and the solutions of the architects are arriving, and the entire facility should be completed by the end of 2022. The robotics service in Zagreb should be launched by 2024. And right at the beginning of Jarunska Street, Rimac will build a base for robots, from where they will scatter towards the city and return to recharge their batteries.

The complex, officially called the Mobility Center - which includes a town square, a park, and an e-charging station - is only the first step towards realizing the 3.4 billion kuna Rimac project, announced in March this year, to develop and establish a network of electric, autonomous taxis in Zagreb.

As Rimac replied, the idea is that the Mobility Center on the Sava serves two purposes.

"The idea is to create such a center of autonomous mobility on the Sava that would have, on the one hand, a social role, a place where people will come to meet new technologies and talk to experts in a pleasant environment, and on the other, functional side, for charging, maintaining and cleaning robotaxi vehicles in an environmentally sustainable way," explained Rimac.

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