BMW And Rimac Are Teaming Up On EV Tech
The car industry can be a funny old place sometimes. When hypercar manufacturers Bugatti and Rimac teamed up a couple of years ago in a joint venture, it was under ownership split 45 and 55 per cent between Porsche and the wider Rimac Group respectively. Porsche itself is of course owned by Volkswagen, which in turn is part-owned by⊠Porsche (specifically a holding company rather than the automaker itself).
The Rimac Group includes both Bugatti Rimac, which actually builds cars, and Rimac Technology, which produces electric powertrains and interior tech for third parties. The owners of Rimac Group include both Porsche and, just to throw some extra confusion into the mix, Hyundai (although things have been quiet between Rimac and the South Korean company for a while now).
Rimac Nevera
Basically, thereâs a complex web of partnerships and ownership stakes at play here, and itâs about to become even more of a brain twister, as now BMW has announced itâs to work with Rimac Technology on electric car tech. So a company part-owned by Porsche is going to collaborate with⊠BMW? Stranger things have happened, we suppose.
To be clear, this is the Rimac that produces powertrain tech, rather than the one that builds the Nevera hypercar. Theyâre separate companies, albeit both under the same ownership and both founded by Mate Rimac, so we wouldnât start betting on a BMW-badged hypercar with a Nevera powertrain.
BMW iX
Rather, the companies will be working together on âhigh-voltage battery technology for battery-electric vehiclesâ. Rather than one directly supplying the other, it seems that the two companies will be pooling their resources in a mutually beneficial way as BMW aims to further expand its EV offerings.
Exactly which cars this tech is set to end up in isnât clear, but it probably wonât be BMWâs upcoming Neue Klasse EVs: it says itâs preparing for the launch of these âseparately from the new strategic cooperationâ with Rimac Technology. Rather, this tech will end up in cars slated to appear in the second half of the decade.
Okay