The plan has gone a little awry. This is due to the Mont Blanc tunnel’s unexpected closure. It’s a pity, not least because the 7.2 mile-long engineering masterpiece that connects Chamonix with Courmayeur in the Aosta Valley (Italian Job territory) is a reminder of the inspirational power of big infrastructure projects. The tunnel opened back in 1965 - amazingly - and one stat stands out: its creators used 37 million kWh of electricity during its six-year construction.
This is rather more than the Rimac Nevera’s lithium manganese nickel battery pack manages, although there are times when it feels like this thing could punch a hole right through an Alp. I was one of the first people in the world to drive the Nevera, back in ’21, and since then it’s had TG approval courtesy of Chris Harris and one of the most spectacular drifts even that perma-slidey man has ever executed. But that was a prototype. Now in full production, and having smashed 23 records in a single day this past summer, Rimac has invited me to have another go.
The Mont Blanc tunnel might be off limits but the adventure starts somewhere near Turin and it’ll still take in a variety of other mega tunnels. (It’s incredible, they’re like bus stops in this part of Europe.) I should add that the Nevera and I aren’t just being reunited for old time’s sake. Although that welter of new records - just ponder that brain-frazzling 0-249-0 mph time of 29.93 seconds - confirms that it’s an aero-honed sledgehammer, company founder Mate Rimac is keen to remind everyone that the Nevera is also a useable GT. Perhaps even a daily driver if you’re a Silicon Valley bro (or sister) with telephone number levels of disposable. A daily driver with four surface-mounted permanent magnet motors driving each wheel individually, coursing with the most advanced torque vectoring ever seen, boasting a power output equivalent to 1,889bhp and 1,740 lb ft of torque, with a pair of single-speed gearboxes connected to the front and rear wheels. It really is an extraordinary achievement, and likely to remain unsurpassed. Until Ferrari unleashes its electric hypercar in 2025, anyway. We’ll see.
The six-day trans-European road trip I’ve parachuted into will see a Nevera drive from Rimac’s Zagreb base through seven countries, amassing 1,324 miles in the process. My stint will start near Turin, skirt the Parc National de la Vanoise north to Chambéry, then south again towards Grenoble, Aix-en-Provence, before flying home from Marseille.
There’s another reason we’re here. Rimac has just inked - or whatever the 2023 equivalent is - an arrangement with IONITY that’ll bequeath Nevera owners with eight years unlimited free charging at all of the company’s pan-European charging points. It’s unlikely to be a deal-breaker for those in the market for a car with this sort of intergalactic capability, but it shines a renewed light on one of the era’s defining machines.
Which is an interesting way to describe the Nevera, if you think about it. Is a Bugatti, Ferrari or Porsche a ‘machine’? Of course, but much more besides. Those guys are legacy car makers with an abiding history in and love for engines. It’s not necessarily a pejorative term, yet there’s the whiff of hi-tech utility to an EV, as if circulating electrons and electrolytes are less emotionally resonant than pistons, cylinders and explosive internal combustion. Maybe it’s because EVs are mostly silent in operation, generally do their thing without complaint or hesitation. To a diehard, EV is an abbreviation that’s about as reassuring as AI.
But then we know that very clever people in companies we haven’t yet heard of and plenty that we have are working their butts off to elevate the whole caboodle in terms of measurables like range and energy density, and subjective ones such as sound and emotion. Mate Rimac might have beaten them all to it, though. The Nevera has the means to accelerate to 186mph in 9.3 seconds, but its ability to charge at 500kW is another doozy. Perhaps the doozy. There aren’t many charging points around engineered to hose energy into a car’s batteries at that velocity, but IONITY’s 350kW Halo charger can take the Nevera’s huge 120kWh battery from zero to 80 per cent ‘within 25 minutes’. Cue a quick European road trip to assess the veracity and reliability of the network.
Негізгі бет Автокөліктер мен көлік құралдары CAN THE RECORD BREAKING RIMAC NEVERA HYPERCAR DEAL WITH A LONG ROAD TRIP
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