The Rimac Nevera is that much closer to production now that it’s passed the last of its crash tests. Four years of impact testing and ten pre-production cars later, the Rimac Nevera is ready to protect drivers and co-drivers in dozens of crash scenarios. This latest and final test certifies that the Nevera will protect occupants should they happen to smash against a light post (or similar object) sideways at a speed of around 32 km per hour.
That doesn’t sound very fast, and certainly not fast at all for a fully-electric hypercar making around 1,900 horsepower, but those speeds are more or less in line with the velocities the car has been subject to in other trials, such as the frontal wall crash test (56 km/h) or the U.S.-market rear crash test (80 km/h.)
Rimac asked Carwow’s Mat Watson for help crashing the $US2.4 ($3) million dollar hypercar into a pole, and you can watch the in-depth test below:
Rimac says its EV hypercar exceeded even the carmakers own expectations:
The final test, which took place end of January, was the demanding side pole test, conducted at 32km/h and simulating a side impact with a lamppost. With very little of the car’s body and chassis between the pole and the occupants, and very little energy absorbed by the pole, it’s one of the most difficult tests a car can be subjected to. The structure of the Nevera proved to be so effective at distributing the crash energy that the door on the impact side could still be opened after the test. This test was the last passive safety US-homologation test, while European homologation tests were completed in 2021.
Rimac goes on to claim that the Nevera’s fibre tub will boast the highest rigidity of any production car ever made, which not only makes for a well-handling sports car, but apparently for a pretty safe one, too:
The Nevera was designed from the very beginning to be extremely safe, built around an advanced carbon fibre monocoque extending between the front and rear suspension attachments. As a result, the Nevera is the stiffest production car ever created, with a torsional rigidity of 70,000 Nm/degree – a regular supercar will be around 40,000 Nm/degree. The monocoque also forms part of a very stiff survival cell that helps to dissipate energy around the occupants in the case of a crash.
At least now you’ll be a little more comfortable knowing that if you do pull a Hammond and crash a Rimac (though not a Nevera) you’ll be reasonably safe.
