Rimac reveals Concept S

While Bugatti’s Chiron made loud noises both figuratively and literally at the Geneva show, there was one hypercar that kept relatively mute on our radar.

Silence may seem appropriate for something fully electric, but Rimac’s debut in to the hypercar world with its new Concept_S promises to have The Pope swearing. Yes, that’s an underscore in its name. And to avoid us swearing, we’re going to call it the Concept S from now on.

Claimed to drop 100km/h in 2.5 seconds and pass 200km/h in 5.6sec, the S should run ahead of a Chiron all the way up to 300km/h before it pulls chutes at 365km/h. Meanwhile it’ll nudge 1.7 lateral G in corners, almost double what a regular hot-hatch can do.

Speed is supplied by a team of four electric motors, each in charge of an individual wheel. The front motors drive single-speed gearboxes while the rears score their own two-speed dual clutch units.

This not only means the Concept S will have one of the most sophisticated torque vectoring systems around, but produce a combined 1018kW and 1800Nm with at full throttle. Powering the whole show is a 650-volt lithium ion battery pack which regeneratively charges when you lean on its huge carbon brakes.

With the batteries sitting within a chromoly spaceframe that uses carbon-fibre and aluminium ‘members’, the Concept S flashes up 1800kg on the weighbridge – light for an electric car, but portly for the track duties its extreme exterior and interior suggest.

Still, it’ll rock up to any track day with a power-to-weight ratio few hypercars, or even racecars, will manage.

So where exactly has it come from? Look to Rimac, a Croatian firm making the jump from electric racecars to road cars. It built Nobuhiro Tajima’s all-electric Pikes Peak monster last year, and basically adapted its drivetrain to the Concept S and the tamer, more street-friendly version called the “Concept_One” it will debut alongside.

Details on pricing and launch dates are scarce, but both the Concept One and Concept S are claimed as production ready.

But when it does launch, you’ll know why other hypercars have suddenly gone quiet.