‘Wait, Is Rimac Making A Hot Hatch?’ That was the question boldly asked by, erm, us this morning after a teaser appeared on the Instagram page of Mate Rimac, founder of the Croatian electric hypercar manufacturer, showing something with a distinctive hatchback silhouette. Well, we might have gotten a bit over-excited. Sorry.
See, in addition to being the CEO of the Bugatti-Rimac joint venture, Mate is also the co-founder and chairman of Project 3 Mobility, a company that’s “building an urban ecosystem for autonomous, safe, and effortless movement” according to its website. Busy guy.
Anyway, the same teaser that Mate posted to his personal Instagram appeared – five days ago, if we’re being honest – on P3’s LinkedIn page, outright stating that it was the silhouette of the company’s next project. A series of stills from the teaser video also appears as the header image on P3’s LinkedIn. Whoops.
So, we’re probably not looking at an unexpected electric hot hatch from a company best known for an 1888bhp hypercar. What exactly is being teased, then? Well, in 2022, P3 announced it was working on an autonomous, electric taxi designed for urban areas. Earlier this year, it closed a round of fundraising for the project, having amassed around €100 million (approx. £86 million) in investment. That’s most likely the vehicle being teased.
Still, you can’t blame us for getting our hopes up. So far, P3 has very much operated on the down-low while funds have been raised. Mate even posted the video on his own personal Instagram page, where his bio makes no mention of P3 and pretty much every post relates to Rimac or Bugatti.
So, yes, while this car will technically be built by Rimac – or at least with its technology – it’s not going to be some tyre-shredding, dual-motor hot hatch. At least it makes the presence of French novelist Jules Verne, of ‘Around The World In Eighty Days’ fame, in the teasers make a little more sense. We think.
Come on Mate – you’ve got everyone’s hopes up now. Any chance of a very hot, definitely not autonomous version for consumers?
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