Move over, Model S; you’re no longer the quickest game in town. The electric powertrain specialists at Rimac have taken the Nevera hypercar to a test track in Germany where it set 23 new performance records. Among these, a 0-60 mph time of a mere 1.74 seconds and a standing quarter-mile in just 8.26 seconds. That means the Nevera can even outrun the mighty Model S Plaid, which needs a second more to run the length of a drag strip.

Perhaps the most impressive record is one that few cars, electric or otherwise, are even capable of. It’s the 0–400–0 time—hit 400 km/h (249 mph) from a standing start, then brake down to 0 mph. In 2017, Bugatti set the standard when the Chiron completed this test in 42 seconds.

But that record was snatched away by Koenigsegg, the innovative Swedish hypercar manufacturer, first with an Agera RS with a time of 36.44 seconds, then again to 33.29 seconds, then later to 31.49 seconds using a Regera hypercar. Now Rimac has broken the 30-second barrier, completing the task in 29.93 seconds.

Rimac—which now part-owns Bugatti, and is part-owned in turn by Porsche—set the records at the Automotive Testing Papenburg center in Germany, with a pair of independent organizations (Racelogic, Dewesoft) there to verify the times.

As already noted, 60 mph arrived in just 1.74 seconds. 100 km/h (62 mph) took 1.82 seconds; 125 mph (200 km/h) was reached in 4.42 seconds, then 300 km/h (186 mph) in 9.23 seconds. And 400 km/h took just 21.32 seconds from a standstill.

For those who just want imperial records, how about these? Zero to 100 mph took 3.21 seconds—as long as it took the legendary McLaren F1 to reach 60 mph and a production car record for many, many years. Zero to 200 mph took only 10.86 seconds, or about as long as it took you to read these last two paragraphs.

“Growing up I always looked at the cars that made history moving the bar for performance, in awe of the kind of revolutionary technology they brought to the road. That is what is driving me from day one—to develop new technology that redefines what is possible,” said Mate Rimac, founder and CEO of the eponymous company.

“Today, I am proud to say that the car we’ve created can get to 400km/h and back to 0 in less time than it took the McLaren F1 to accelerate up to 350km/h. And not only that, but it can do it again and again, breaking every other performance record in the process. If you had a Nevera and access to a track, you could do it, too,” said Rimac.

Sadly, few of us are likely to get such a chance. Although Rimac is building 150 Neveras, you’ll need $2 million to make one of them yours.

https://arstechnica.com/?p=1939901