Check Mate

As founder of the Croatian car company that bears his surname, Mate Rimac is instrumental to countless cuttingedge electrified supercar projects. Yet he is also contributing towards the end of driving as we know it. In this candid interview, he explains why

- Antony Ingram

IF ELON MUSK IS THE FRONTMAN OF THE automotive industry’s future, Mate Rimac is the songwriter. Tesla’s charismatic lead is on the album covers, figuratively stumbling out of clubs at 4 am and quarreling with reporters as he sells sleek electric sedans and promises to put future generations on Mars. But it’s Mate writing those earworms, teaming up with legacy automakers and tech start-ups alike to profoundly influence how we’ll get from place to place in the next quarter-century and beyond.

Not that Mate is short on charisma. Several times during our interview he politely apologizes for pausing to engage with people passing by, and in full swing, he speaks at a pace that makes even his firm’s 1888bhp C Two supercar look slovenly.

Words are still chosen very carefully. Rimac (the eponymous supercar company Mate created) has numerous lucrative, high-profile clients on its books – Aston Martin, Porsche, Pininfarina, and Koenigsegg are just the ones known publicly – and as a result, Mate likely knows more about the direction of the industry than anyone CEO at a major automaker. Or technology firm, for that matter: the Croatian outfit is also deeply embedded in autonomous vehicle technology.

The C Two was launched at last year’s Geneva show, and made another appearance this year, with deliveries scheduled for 2020. On display was the car’s carbon-fiber structure – a design Mate says was created completely from scratch, rather than being an evolution of the C One’s.