Rimac Technology has officially commenced series production of high-voltage battery systems for BMW’s electric cars at its Rimac Campus in Kerestinec, near the Croatian capital Zagreb.
BMW and Rimac Technology, part of the Rimac Group, agreed to cooperate on the electric car battery units in April 2024.
Two fully automated production lines, with 49 robots, have been installed in a 15,000 m2 area within the 90,000 m2 Rimac Campus, local media reported.
The total installed capacity of the new lines is up to 300,000 battery modules, or 48,000 complete battery systems, per year. Around 70% of the campus’s total capacity is already allocated for batteries for several parallel programmes of major car manufacturers.
Around 70% of the campus’s total capacity is already allocated for batteries for major carmakers
The series production of batteries for the BMW i7 will create 150 new jobs by the end of the year, according to Rimac Technology. The firm currently employs around 1,200 people, while the Rimac Group has 2,000 workers.
The details of the production and the plant itself were presented to the media by Rimac Group founder and president Mate Rimac, Rimac Technology CEO Nurdin Pitarević, and COO Marko Brkljačić.
Mate Rimac pointed out that the collaboration with BMW is by far the company’s biggest and most important project to date. He stressed that Rimac Technology has become BMW’s sole partner responsible for producing complete battery systems.
Rimac: The collaboration with BMW is by far the company’s most important project to date
This is a huge recognition and proof that the company is no longer just a hypercar manufacturer, but a serious Tier 1 partner at the highest global level of the automotive industry, he added.
According to Nurdin Pitarević, the project’s significance is highlighted by the fact that batteries are the most important and most expensive component of an electric car. If a vehicle is worth EUR 100,000, the battery costs EUR 15,000, he noted.
The robots at the Rimac Campus can build a battery module in 52 seconds and a complete battery in 245 seconds, according to Brkljačić.
Rimac Technology and BMW Group have also collaborated on the production of the new all-electric BMW i7 model.
