Rimac Nevera hits 412km/h in bid to become world’s fastest EV

The Rimac Nevera has set a new high-speed record for series-production electric vehicles, with the Croatian hypercar clocked at an incredible 412km/h at a test facility in Germany.

According to Rimac, the Nevera hitting 412km/h was recorded at the Automotive Testing Papenburg track in Germany, one of the few places in Europe where it’s possible to exceed 400km/h at a private test facility.

Enabling it to set the new record, engineers popped the Nevera into its top-speed mode, which slams the aero into its low-drag mode.

For the top-speed runs, the Rimac was shod with Michelin Cup 2R road-legal tyres.

Behind the wheel was Miro Zrncevic, Rimac’s chief test driver, who had to carry a steady 250km/h around the banked section of the track before unleashing the full 1408kW of power and 2360Nm of torque from the quad-motor powertrain.

The actual GPS-verified top speed was then achieved on the track’s 4km-long straights.

Spookily, the 412km/h matches the top-speed target Rimac set for itself during the Nevera’s development all the way back in 2018, when the Rimac C-Two concept was first unveiled at the Geneva motor show.

Despite proving the Nevera is capable of a higher top speed than the combustion-engined 2005 Bugatti Veyron (407km/h), customer cars will continue to be limited to 352km/h.

Rimac says it will arrange special customer events where the higher top speed can be experienced, but only under supervision from the car-maker.

It’s not known if the new EV record will be officially recognised as such, as Rimac has not confirmed if the top-speed run was independently verified.

The Nevera also still trails the incredible 490.48k/h the Bugatti Chiron Super Sport 300+ set back in 2019.

Commenting on his new EV record, Zrncevic said: “To travel at 412km/h, or 258mph, means travelling at a third of the speed of sound.

“Simply achieving that alone in a road car is incredibly complex, but in Nevera we have created a car that can travel long distances on a single charge, can tackle tight and twisting racetracks and can drift as well as break straight-line speed records, both for acceleration and V-max.”

Last year, the Nevera cemented itself as one of the world’s fastest production vehicles after running an 8.582-second quarter mile.

Against the clock, the battery-powered hypercar is also capable of a 0-60mph (0-97km/h) time of just 1.85 seconds.

Limited to just a run of 150 cars, the Rimac Nevera is currently on sale in Europe from €2 million ($A3.1m).

There’s still no word if any of the all-electric hypercars will come in right-hand drive.

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