the age of the electric hypercar is upon
us the Lotus Evora the Tesla Roadster
the Pininfarina Bautista and this the
rim AXI to our all eminent all have
almost 2000 brake horsepower all have
four-wheel-drive all look loaf and lean
and promise face melting acceleration
but nobody's had the chance to
experience that sort of shot until now
it's good let's add some facts to my
incomprehensible squealing shall we back
in 2008 when we first saw it
Wemmick gave us a spec sheet for the
situ and it read like this before carbon
fiber monocoque four motors one for each
wheel producing 1887 brake horsepower
and 1696 pounds-feet of torque the kerb
weight of around two tons naught to 60
miles an hour in 1.8 five seconds naught
to 100 in four point three naught to 186
in eleven point eight and a top speed of
258 miles now that makes it one of the
very fastest cars ever built it also has
a claim range of 340 miles 550
kilometers on the W LTP cycle and can
top up nought to 80% of its 120 kilowatt
hour battery in 30 minutes thanks to a
charging capacity of up to 300 kilowatts
however as you can see from the
camouflage on this car this isn't a
two-year-old Joker this is a prototype
of the full production machine be it
warm with them
a lot so today is very much a taster but
while we're here
I can tell you what I think talk about
is the acceleration it's not quite as
explosion about the blocks as you might
imagine that's because this is an early
prototype with a two-speed gearbox on
the back axle the foot production car is
going to be a single speed but this is
locked in second gear because that's all
they need for the but the processes this
car needs to validate the way it picks
up then it's smooth it's quick I'm
heading uphill to be fair here which
looks the acceleration anyway but once
you in gear
there's quite a lot of talk there is
quite a lot performance it does feel
quite naughty the overriding sense
though
with this is the feeling of the solidity
it's noisy it's a prototype you're going
to get that you're gonna get Scotland's
pinging off it and you can hear the
tires and a bit of wind whistling around
the a-pillars but through my bum and
through my fingers
it feels absolutely keyed in so when you
turn the wheel it just moves there's no
slack the carbon fiber monocoque that's
super super stiff the suspension is
attached directly to the carbon
monocoque it's a fantastic basis drives
the v8 m5 he's a petrol head he's just a
bloke that loves cars he didn't make an
electric hyper car because he wanted to
save the planet or
prove anything in particular only but he
thought using batteries and monitors was
simply a better way to make a fast car
it doesn't have the range it doesn't
have the repeatability of performance I
mean we're going to find out that the
finished product later on but from this
evidence
electric is certainly catching up and
then it was time to pick up a passenger
who I let dry for a little bit
considering is his car thanks for having
me thank you especially as I've been
told I sound a little bit like Richard I
haven't so her I don't you getting any
flashbacks
don't worry we're not going to go there
you still get happy every time you sit
on the wheel of this car camera yes I do
but I can never just drive
I always watch all the details and all
the data and like try to hear if there's
something wrong and so on yeah so for me
it's like the test-drive every time so
how do you describe your driving style
that sweet aggressive like this
that answers that one then it's gone
then how much them how much power does
this prototype and there's an early
prototype how much does it produce at
the moment around one tiles and
kilowatts one my god what's that
thousand bialys 1,300 horsepower okay
why is it limited just tell me a bit
about this prototype and what stage of
the process this comes from so every
prototype has a different purpose yeah
this was actually the first running
cartridge we produced almost a year ago
now yeah which means that it's basically
based on 15 month old data so as the
process is going on while you produce
the card yeah and this was used to test
the suspension and the battery and let's
say the basics of the power train so we
didn't take care of the exterior
interior so a lot of the stuff here is
improvised the duct tape and so on 3d
printed yeah but it used it was used for
the suspension setup and so on and what
we wanted to do first is to have a
really good let's say passive car yeah
meaning mechanical grip the suspension
geometry the kinematics of the
suspension the setup together with the
tires because the car tires are
custom-made for this car by Pirelli yeah
and then add torque vectoring on top of
it yeah because otherwise you might just
be you know covering up deficiencies
with talked back to you guys you know
the chassis is okay but that's what we
don't want you want to have a really
solid car with the altar corrector and
then add the functionalities of torque
vectoring on top of it we want to have
some kind of natural control in the
vehicle like when you are in drift mode
that you can really slide the car around
and still feel like you are in control
and have minimum intervention but still
some kind of intervention because you
don't want the tire to go 300 km/h while
the car is moving 50 you just said it
has a drift mode so that's that's one of
the things in the finished car right
when we have the torque vectoring
systems overlaid
can you do the whole tent mode thing
spinning on the spot because you could
effectively turn wheels in different
directions
yeah totally yes but it's not something
we would give to our customers it's a
little bit dangerous I think but it's a
nice way of demonstrating just how thick
you can hear it's like a thank you okay
so if we project forward to the
production car that we're gonna see in
Geneva yeah how much of this specs from
the for the concept car from two years
ago have been carried over I've got I've
got a checklist just to make sure we
don't miss anything
silver for motors we still have them
yeah the two-speed gearbox because the
concept had just be give ups on the rear
axle right yes Thursday this car still
has them yes this was an early
retirement
but for production we decided not to
have a two-speed gearbox but to go for
six-speed gearbox in order to reduce the
weight and the complexity and increased
efficiency so this car still has the
two-speed but we are just using second
gear right now yeah because that's
closer to the production car and how how
can you maintain that 400 kilometers an
hour top speed with just a single speed
gearbox
yeah there was a trick to
really increase the performance of the
motors and the inverters so we moved the
motor speed from 12,000 rpm to 18,000
rpm and the torque at the same time from
700 Newton meters to 900 meters here so
in that way we could have the same
acceleration and same top speed without
having to spur two gears is that is the
hain still 1900 horsepower there is
1,300 sir
and the range 550 kilometres w LD P
cycle yes LTP now I remember meeting you
two years ago and you said the aim was
to do two fast laps of the Nurburgring
without significant decrease in
performance how close are you to that
that's tough one you're still working on
that next question yeah well for the
apalis train it's doable it's not a
problem
yeah the problem is the batteries which
are heating up so the strategy of how
you start the lap and how you manage the
power and the cooling during the lap
that's something that we are really
tuning doing lots of simulations can we
do two laps today no we can't without
the rating but I hope you'll get there
on that night we swap seats so I could
have another guy this time under the
watchful eye of mr. Remmick so I almost
died twice being the passenger in a test
time
so I third time lucky I was I had to
promise my girlfriend that I will never
drive as a passenger with somebody else
in our prototypes again it's Oh be
careful please just decide what I did
turn up the matter I said okay yeah I'll
do some driving with Jack in the
passenger seat and then yeah he could
just go off on his own I know I want you
in here don't worry I'm taking it easy
I'm just I'm learning the car you know
I've been driving prototypes before yeah
yeah so how much more power because a
car tape I'll be honest in the Top Gear
office when you first announced the situ
and it was 1904 Speyer
you know we were like this is such a
leap from anything that we've known
before I remember the Veyron being
announced with a thousand horsepower and
us just blowing our minds why pick this
power number is it this as much as four
tires can take could you can you see a
more powerful car in the future well the
throttle is not a digital switch you
know so you don't have to use the full
power all the time
but there is never too much power I
think like even with thousand an hour
horsepower the tire can't take it until
120 but above it you could have more
power no problem for yeah yeah yeah so I
don't think that's the problem well
without you know when the McLaren f1
came out everybody was like okay that's
it there will be no car with more power
than that
yeah and today you have sedans and SUVs
with that kind of power
no so today I would say that 100
horsepower is like why would you need
more but I don't know let's speak again
in a few years to sum up then the C 2 is
already blisteringly quick to drive how
fast it will be when a further six
hundred horsepower is unleashed
I can only imagine the steering brakes
and refinement all need a fair bit of
tuning but this is a six month old
prototype so we won't dwell on that too
much what we can say is in the corners
it feels stiff and alert and super flat
half a ton lighter at least than its 2
ton plus curb weight suggests and here's
the clincher it hasn't even had the
infinite four-wheel drive torque
vectoring wizardry applied yet when it
does the handling should be out of this
world
oh and because you'll have direct manual
control over how you want the power
distributed up to 100% to the rear axle
in drift mode it might be a hyper GT at
heart the c2 but it's going to be a lot
of fun on the track as well ok
learn a bit more about the man and the
company we were writing the book I'm not
just hyper cars but electric cars in
general ok matter you must feel like
we're surrounded by your baby's here
that's the 2018 show car over there the
prototype we've been driving and the new
final production model we're not even
talk about that now someone talked about
you demand the company the electric car
landscape in general but before that
first question it's the one that
everyone wants to ask what's the secret
to your beard well actually you know I
started a company in when I was 20 years
old and what strange enough to do it in
Croatia and you know I needed the beard
to look more serious so people would
take you seriously in these big meetings
well I hear I'm you know musk is
thinking about growing one so it helps
you know it gives super pores so take us
right back to the beginning where did
your fascination with electric cars
begin almost crazy bald cars all my life
my parents told me I was crazy about
them before I could walk or talk like
Howard presented my hand hurts so my
father would cook me my grandfather's
folk song people and then I'll forget
about the hurting ham and when I was in
high school I was doing stuff with
electronics
I was the creation champion for
electronics and innovation I had two
patents when I was 17 years old I won a
bunch of awards all over the world but I
wanted to do something with cars all my
life and as soon as I turned 18 I bought
in 1984 BMW 3-series that we call a box
in Croatia I like because it's so boxy I
started to race it because I wanted to
race and that was the easiest way to
start racing you buy an old car with
rear-wheel drive and well differential
you have a few spare tires and you go
you know but the engine blew up just
after two races and then I decided to
combine my two passions electronics and
cars and being from Croatia I read a lot
about Nikola Tesla who was born here as
well before Tesla Motors and the whole
thing was famous you know in Croatia we
were very proud of him
and one of his inventions was the
electric motor that we are using today
the alternating current electric motor
and that motor was so fascinating to me
that it's so perfect and so superior
compared to combustion engines so why is
nobody using that to make cars fun and
exciting so I decided when the engine on
the BMW blew up to make an electric race
car to show that electric cars can be
fast and exciting that's how it started
and it started from that and here we are
many years later just remind people how
old are you
I'm 32 32 yeah that noise you can hear
is everyone watching this video saying
wishing they worked harder at school I
think well you know it starts with a
dream but then the dream often becomes a
nightmare I mean to get here from that
garage to here it was not an easy
journey let's say it was worrying about
making payroll not being able to pay the
rent and the facility and so it was
really really hard to get this company
off the ground and like 90% of the work
is not fun but then in the end when you
look at the results you know we never
actually look back and say wow look at
what we have achieved it's always like a
wolf you know when I look at the car I
still see a million things that we need
to get done to ship the first cars to
customers you know to make delivery on
time to do the home Legation and so on
it's never like we've done it you know
so it's like a car company or a
technology company we want to be both we
want to bake the best like two hyper
cars in the world and to show what's
possible and to push the bar on the
other side we want to help the industry
to go electric and to help other car
companies like Porsche undying
Koenigsegg St Martin and many others to
make hybrid and electric cars that are
exciting and fun so for use it the cause
of the technology that fascinates you
more but you know Enzo Ferrari built
Road cars to be able to race I'm I kind
of started doing technology because I
couldn't find investors for for the
supercar business and then the
technology business kept the car thing
going now it's different you know you
know I was crazy about cars all my life
like many of the guys probably watching
this video and going at car shows as a
kid you're always wondering what's been
the curtains what's going to be unveiled
and stuff like that and now we are
shaping what's behind the curtains in
many ways you know in many companies and
so on so it's super exciting going
around Geneva now in a couple of days
and having the curtains around before
they are wheeling and I know what's
under it of many of them so you know it
feels like we have become a really
important part of the industry and I
think that's great like shaping the
future in a way and of course we're
seeing battery-electric technology being
used to enhance these big petrol engines
as well so you had the 918 Laffer re
generation of hybrid cars but now the
aston martin Valkyrie which I know that
riemeck works with that's got the hybrid
assistance built into the gearbox so
it's people using this electric power to
enhance these petrol engines towards the
end of their life of your back yeah it's
about making the cars better not only
electrical hybrid for the sake of making
select your hybrid but to use the
potential of the powertrain to really
push the limits and make them better
vehicles and that's the thing also with
us we didn't do this to save the planet
or to save co2 emissions with a couple
of hundred cars that will produce in the
next you know years it's not going to
move the needle but it's really about
pushing the limits and to show that
electrification and the future will not
be boring for you know there is a fun
future for guys like us that love cars
and you talked about batteries there
this 120 kilowatt hour battery in this
where does the next big leap in battery
technology come from and are we not in
danger of creating a generation of
electric cars now that in 10 years are
just going to be out of date ooh heavy
too full of precious metals etc well I
have my notebook where I wrote down
everything when I started and I printed
out everything and you know there were
some certain batteries coming on the
market at that time and if you look at
the battery cells themselves in the
chemistry's what was state-of-the-art
back then in terms of energy density
energy per kilogram it's today it's
still pretty much the same so it's like
10 percent improvement over 10 years
what has happened is the prices have
come down massively like 80 or 90
percent but in reality you know people
were sending me links all the time like
why don't you use this you
battery technology that new battery
technology were you have press releases
all the time and people announcing stuff
but it never came to the market so I
don't really believe that there will be
a big leap in battery technology in the
next few years it's incremental
improvement we are working really hard
around the chemistry so we are working
with some manufacturers to optimize the
chemistry and to but then our work
really starts on the module level like
to cool the batteries to pack them as
densely as possible to make it safe and
so on that's where we are good at but
the fundamentals I don't think there'll
be this huge leap like with lithium air
batteries or let's type solid stay
solid-state might come soon but I don't
think it's going to have an impact for
performance vehicles because it course
when it does arrive if and when it
arrives the prices going straight back
up to the top again yeah but it's
solid-state batteries are more attendant
to reduce the cost and to have a good
energy density but power density will be
at the beginning quite bad so it's not
for performance vehicles it's more for
let's say family and more reasonable
vehicles so how is the business changed
since you started and supplying
manufacturers can you keep up are you
growing too fast when we started it was
a very different world it was a world
when you had the g-wiz that was the
electric car in people's minds when you
when you said electric car you know it's
like small ugly boxy so the world has
changed and now everybody's coming to us
they want our stuff in their vehicles
and so on it's hard to keep up the you
know a very small company working with
the very big companies so you know
Hyundai is for example a shareholder and
they have four times more revenue than
Croatians GDP so all of creation
companies combined all of the economy is
four times weaker than Hugh and I just
one company so there's some massive
companies and you know we are then a
little wheel in in there you know huge
organizations and it's tough to be on
their level because they are doing it
for a hundred years
but we are getting there it's a
transition and you know basically it's
something that very very few people have
done to create a company in a garage and
just in ten years be a supplier of key
components
you know there are safety critical and
that are defining the DNA of the vehicle
two major car manufacturers and that's
where a lot of the gray hair comes from
so it's not it's not just the
high-performance companies you're
working with you are working with other
OEMs
on more mass-market electric vehicles
and helping them to develop those
mass-market TVs yeah I think it would be
you know very elite istic to do this
just for hyper cars and that's not
something I would like to do of course
hyper cars are beautiful nice and we all
love them but it would be really nice if
this technology trickles down to more
mass-market vehicles and you will see
something also in Hue nightstand in this
Geneva so the point is that we take what
we have here in the two million euros
hyper car which it will become more
affordable in cars like Hyundai so
that's why you know we don't want to go
against the karna street we want to go
with the karna street we see what does
the whole difficult it is to ramp up and
how much money and people it takes you
know billions and billions and tens of
thousands of the best people in the
world to compete against the car
companies because it's such a hard
business I don't think there's any
hardware business than 10 cars with them
we can bring this technology to a wider
audience that's what we want we would
like that much wider audience has access
to fun electric cars yeah
all right so let's assume that you have
a situ in your garage that's that's
sorted what else would be in your dream
lottery wind gauge oh I have a long long
list so that's all right we got some
time yeah I actually have a list of
things that I would like to weigh like
you pulled out your pocket yeah will be
very long first I wanted like all the
cars where we have our components and
but that's going to be very difficult as
smart will curry connect is a Greg era
you know it's going to be quite
expensive to do that been fighting about
this and these kind of cars that they're
very expensive cars but then you know
currently my garage would be mostly
combustion engine cars ether tm3
air-cooled Porsches maybe some of the
new Porsche is you know gt3 RS or gt2 RS
so I would like this like night
90s era 80s kind of cars and you know I
read somewhere that the market for these
pre-war era cars is dropping a lot and I
was wondering why and a guy told me the
story that you know you are fascinated
by certain cars when you are young and
then when you are later successful in
life you buy the cars that you liked
when you were young and so for me that's
the 80s and the 90s that's the kind of
cars that I would love maybe a Carrera
GT you know with the crazy v10 sound or
an SLR I know it has a terrible gearbox
but it was a car that I had you know on
my wall yeah so cars like that
yeah so there's that's your era that's
the car Marte you're gonna need a bigger
garage oh yeah definitely
well you know I have everything in the
company so I don't you know what they
say paper rich cash poor so that's not a
priority for me for me the priorities
that the company is successful