Photo: Hyundai
Hyundai and Kia invested $84 million in Rimac in 2019 to have 12% of the Croatian company. They then started to develop new joint projects until Porsche approached Rimac, eventually leading the latter to run Bugatti. It seems Hyundai prefers not to be so close to Porsche and its Croatian partner: sources told Automotive News that the Korean company would stop the projects it had with Rimac.
When the companies announced them on May 15, 2019, they said they would “work closely together to develop prototypes for an electric version of Hyundai Motor’s N brand midship sports concept car and a high-performance fuel cell electric vehicle with the intent to bring them to market at a later time.”
Hyundai did not respond to Automotive News about what the sources revealed. On the other hand, Rimac said it has “two active high-level projects ongoing” with the Korean carmaker, one that is already completed, and that they are discussing other stuff.
One of them is supposed to be the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N. The FCEV project was previewed by the Vision FK concept presented in September 2021 – anyone waiting for a hotter version of the NEXO will be disappointed.
There’s no information on whether the completed project would be the high-performance EV or which are these two ongoing projects. It seems that the Vision FK concept will never see the light of day. If it does, it will not be with Rimac’s help.
To reinforce that things have not changed, the Croatian company told Automotive News that Hyundai has been very supportive of the changes it has undergone in the past 12 months, such as becoming Bugatti Rimac thanks to its partnership with Porsche.
Considering the level of information these sources shared with Automotive News, we do not doubt to hear all this confirmed in a matter of weeks. For Rimac and its intentions of being a provider of parts and expertise in high-performance EVs, that can be bad news unless the idea is to concentrate on exclusive electric vehicles from now on. It may also focus on helping Porsche sell them at a lower price. We’ll soon see.
Hyundai did not respond to Automotive News about what the sources revealed. On the other hand, Rimac said it has “two active high-level projects ongoing” with the Korean carmaker, one that is already completed, and that they are discussing other stuff.
One of them is supposed to be the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N. The FCEV project was previewed by the Vision FK concept presented in September 2021 – anyone waiting for a hotter version of the NEXO will be disappointed.
There’s no information on whether the completed project would be the high-performance EV or which are these two ongoing projects. It seems that the Vision FK concept will never see the light of day. If it does, it will not be with Rimac’s help.
To reinforce that things have not changed, the Croatian company told Automotive News that Hyundai has been very supportive of the changes it has undergone in the past 12 months, such as becoming Bugatti Rimac thanks to its partnership with Porsche.
Considering the level of information these sources shared with Automotive News, we do not doubt to hear all this confirmed in a matter of weeks. For Rimac and its intentions of being a provider of parts and expertise in high-performance EVs, that can be bad news unless the idea is to concentrate on exclusive electric vehicles from now on. It may also focus on helping Porsche sell them at a lower price. We’ll soon see.
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